Animality
by Corrupted Desires
Summary: Trio's 5th Year AU: Harry, Ron, Hermione, Fred, George, Ginny and Draco are turned into hybrid wild animals thanks to a multiple potions accident. Can Snape cure them before he goes insane? COMPLETE
1. Prologue

Disclaimer: I don't own it, if you don't know who does, you need to crawl out of your hole...

Note: I've only read the first two books and seen the movies, but with all the fanfics I've read, I already know quite a bit of spoiler information about the others... This fic takes place in their fifth year, an AU that I've had on my mind for a while. Don't bother asking about pairings, I've already got them in mind and the next chapter or two should clear up any confusion that may have resulted from reading the prologue.

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"Hey! Watch where you're going!" 

"No running in the halls: Five points from Gryffindor!"

"Look out!"

"Don't let her escape!"

"Ahhhh!"

Despite the various warnings and exclamations of surprise and a plea for assistance, the Gryffindor that caused such reactions continued running through the halls. Dodging students and professors alike, anyone that managed to catch a glimpse of the racing Gryffindor's face was either startled or amused to find one Hermione Jane Granger was unashamedly fleeing from _something_ in a complete panic. Though she tended to be calm and collected, and more aggressive over the last few weeks, as soon as she had exited her last class of the day, Hermione had felt as if she were being hunted. And like any good prey, she had fled.

It wasn't the first time she felt as though someone were stalking her over the course of the last week, but it had never been as intense as it had when she emerged from the Transfiguration room at the heels of Ron and Harry. She had halted in the middle of speaking, nostrils flaring slightly as she scanned the hallway. Though it was far from deserted, her skin had prickled, rocketing her senses into full alert. Harry had turned, asking what was wrong, but his only answer was the loud thud as Hermione's bag dropped to the floor at their feet and the pounding of her soles as she tore off as fast as she could. Almost as soon as Hermione had left, Ron and Harry were nearly bowled over as identical tiger striped ginger haired human bludgers tore past in pursuit.

"Fred! George! Leave 'Mione alone!" Ron had shouted, scooping up her bag and looking at Harry as if to ask if they should make an attempt at helping their best friend. To Ron's surprise, Harry had given a shake of his head before whistling softly and turning to head toward Gryffindor Tower.

After nearly plowing into poor Professor Flitwick, Hermione reached the relative safety of the grand staircase, having taken a very long route to get there... Unfortunately for her, the stairs were in the process of changing. With an inhuman snarl, the witch launched herself onto the banister and from there she gave a powerful leap, flying down and to the side as the Patil twins screamed in shock and fear. An impressive cat-like landing two floors down and Hermione tore off through the nearest door just as the tiger striped twins appeared at the banister.

"This was a great idea, we should have done this ages ago..." One twin declared, the other agreeing whole heartedly.

Matching cheshire grins turned on the Patils as Fred and George Weasley asked in unison, "Which floor did she land on?"

Padme wordlessly pointed out the appropriate floor. The Weasley twins saluted the Patil twins and boldly followed Hermione's route of escape. Feet hitting the landing, each gave a sniff and shared a grin before following through the doorway and into the hall beyond. Two floors above, the Parvati exchanged a glance with Padme and the Patils raced off in opposite directions to gather the gossip mongers of the castle.

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Meanwhile, back at the Gryffindor Tower, Harry Potter was lying on his side with his head resting on Ginny Weasley's lap while Ron Weasley ranted about stupid streaky twins. Ginny listened attentively, her fingers brushing through the messy raven locks on her lap. She seemed entranced by the silver tips that caused Harry's hair to look frosted lately.

After some time of brushing out his hair with stubby claws, Ginny sighed. "Ron, I don't think that insulting Fred and George's bloodlines is all that intelligent." She rolled her eyes while Harry chuckled and Ron sputtered. "Besides, Hermione's smart enough to flee to Professor Dumbledore or Professor McGonagall if the twins don't back off after a while."

"That's just it though, Ginny! She could have just turned around and gone back into McGonagall's class, but she freaked and took off down the hall instead." Ron, being the overprotective type, made a strange chirrup sound as he paced back and forth.

Harry snorted softly. "She's probably on her way to Dumbledore's office." He didn't sound too concerned. Of course with Ginny petting his hair, there wasn't much that could concern him at the moment.

"Knowing Hermione, she's just heading to an open space so that she can turn around and hex those two prats."

Ron and Harry both paused before nodding in agreement.

"Oh and Ron... Stop worrying! You'll end up molting at this rate!"

An indignant shriek pierced the air of the Gryffindor common room.

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Several corridors, floors, wings and curses away, the chase continued.

Hermione was beginning to feel winded, her stunt at the staircase along with a second trick of darting into the Kitchens had given her a lead over the twins. An abrupt about face and backtracking halfway down one of the corridors and Hermione was throwing the bolt on the girls' bathroom door. Falling to her hands and knees near the hidden entrance to the Chamber of Secrets and ignoring Myrtle's sullen inquiries, she panted for breath. Sharpened hearing picked up the sound of the twins and she held her breath as she heard them thunder past the bathroom.

Knowing it wouldn't be long until the twins realized they had lost her scent, Hermione hoped she would be rested enough to keep those two terrors from catching her once they discovered her ruse. As she slipped into one of the stalls, she tried to figure out just what had happened to lead her into this situation...

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Reviews are loved, even those that start forest fires... 


	2. Accidental Cause My Tail!

Disclaimer: See previous disclaimer...

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Ultimately, it had all Peeves' fault. It hadn't been Peeves' fault that Ginny was bored and had wandered into Moaning Myrtle's lavatory where Harry, Hermione and Ron were working on their second Polyjuice potion. It hadn't been Peeves' fault that the twins were working on a potentially illegal potion for a new joke sweet. And it hadn't been Peeves' fault that Draco Malfoy just happened to be patrolling that corridor as part of his prefect duties on the night that things went completely wrong... And though he had no help in any of these things, it had still been Peeves' fault.

It had been perhaps ten minutes before curfew when Ginny had slipped into the girls lavatory. She knew that Hermione was once again brewing the Polyjuice for her best mates and, judging by the soft laughter when she first opened the door, the brewing was going well.

"I still can't believe you three have done this before. All the sneaking around to brew a potion here of all places." Ginny shook her head as she deposited a freshly nicked ingredient into Hermione's eager hands. "But then again, since you three have been doing nerve wracking things since your first year..."With a disbelieving shake of her head, Ginny seated herself near Harry as they watched Hermione work.

Ron clucked his tongue at Ginny in a patronizing manner. "At least this time we won't be turning into Crabbe, Goyle and Furball." Ron grinned at Hermione's disgruntled humph. "And using it to spy and get revenge on Umbridge is a lot more fun than trying to find the Heir of Slytherin."

Turning an emerald glance at Ginny, Harry smiled when she didn't so much as flinch at the mention of the incident in her first year. He gave a lazy half smile and remained silent as he watched not the potion being brewed, but the way the dim lighting seemed to play with the smoldering crimson strands of Ginny's hair.

Right about then, beyond the lavatory door and in the corridor, the infamous Weasley twins were working in the shadow of a suit of armor. Their latest prank was to spell the armor so that it would spit a bit of the potion currently stored within a flash in George's left hand out at random students during the course of the next day. They worked perfectly together, movements matched by years of practice as they murmured spells and prodded the suit experimentally.

A faint glimmer of light at one end of the hall caught Fred's attention and he nudged George, pointing down the hall to where Draco Malfoy could be seen just entering the corridor as he started rounds. His prefect partner was nowhere in sight and as such, the twins gave the same devious grin as they pulled further back into the shadows of the armor. George pulled the stopper from the potion flask and was just about to pour the potion into the suit when Peeves swooped down cackling.

"No fair having fun without me!" Peeves screeched as he snatched the flask from George's hand and flew further down the corridor and up out of reach.

"Peeves!" The anguished joint wail of the twins was almost comical as they burst from their hiding spot and ran toward the poltergeist.

With a mad hyena-like cackle, Peeves took off away from the twins. Perhaps he would have gone down the hall and ended up on the other side of the castle. Instead, Peeves spotted Draco Malfoy heading in their direction. One glance at the Slytherin crest on Malfoy's robes was all it took for Peeves to think of the Bloody Baron and turn into the nearest doorway.

"What do we have here!" Peeves demanded loudly, halting at the sight of the quartet of Gryffindors near the hovering ghost of Myrtle.

No one had a chance to even comprehend formulating an answer before Fred and George burst into the bathroom. They paused before giving slight nods and speaking in unison. "Well, well, well... What do we have here?"

"What we have here is a group of Gryffindorks that are about to lose a lot of points and the lead for the House Cup."

Everyone's attention was once more drawn to the door where Draco Malfoy leaned indolently against the frame. "I've already sent my patrol partner to fetch Professor Snape." He drawled, glancing negligently at his fingernails. "Perhaps he'll give you all a month or more of detention for this." He was bluffing of course, but they didn't need to know that!

Unfortunately, Draco's interference had drawn everyone's attention away from Peeves. That was never a good thing to happen. During the time it had taken Draco to make his little speech, Peeves had gleefully dumped the twins' potion into the brewing Polyjuice potion. The mixture was beginning to hiss and burble violently and drew Hermione's attention.

"Peeves! What have you done to our potion!" She screeched as Peeves snatched the cauldron from the stall, fumbling in her robes for her wand.

Peeves cackled madly as Moaning Myrtle emerged from her toilet. "I'm making sure we all have fun!" He shouted before dropping a rather nasty looking firework into the cauldron.

Not even Draco, as far away from the others as he was, could move fast enough to avoid the explosion as the firework detonated within the cauldron. The already volatile mixture of potions erupted, coating all seven students and the lavatory in its slimy mess as shards of the cauldron flew out. The shards sliced into Ron, Hermione, George and Ginny causing them to make various sounds of pain. That only lasted a full moment before all of them screamed as the effects of the mixed potions began to kick in.

"You've hurt Harry!" Myrtle was suddenly a violent demon of a ghost as she hurled herself at the poltergeist. Shoving Peeves through the floor as he shrieked with fear, Myrtle screeched for the Baron.

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The combined voices of seven students screaming in pain, one poltergeist screaming in fear, one ghost insanely wailing in fury woke up a good half of the castle. Professors ran toward the sound of the disturbance as others made sure the students in their dorms remained there. As it was, Professor Snape was the first one on the scene.

By the time he got there Harry, Hermione, Ron, Ginny, George, Fred and Draco were all unconscious and lying in a puddle of foul smelling brew. Almost absentmindedly he found himself pulling an empty vial from a pocket in his robe and filling it with a scraping of the potion from the bathroom walls and then he waited. With all seven unconscious, he would need assistance to move them out of the bathroom without anyone else getting the potion on them.

Hearing the sound of approaching footsteps moving at a run, Snape was about to turn around when a soft flutter from within the bathroom drew his attention. Turning his full attention to the students, Snape was more than a bit surprised to see a large golden wing stretching out from one of their backs...

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Note: I finally got around to reading Prisoner of Azkaban. I can't read Goblet of Fire until after I see the movie though... It'll be 2008 before I get around to reading HBP! 


	3. Awakening Different pt I

Disclaimer: See previous chapters.

A/N: Thank you, my single reviewer! Glad you like the tale so far, Shorty McGee. )

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It wasn't until three days later that the students involved in the incident had begun to awaken. For nearly the entire first day, all seven had been in such pain that even with Dreamless Sleep potions they had tossed and turned on the cots in the hospital wing. Each cot was surrounded by dividers and all gifts from well-wishers had been filtered first through Madam Pomfrey. No visitors, save for most of the professors, were allowed to visit the students lying on the cots and hidden behind privacy curtains.

Ron was the first one to wake.

"Urgh. What the... Ow! Bloody hell... Happened?" He groaned as he lifted a hand to his aching head. Ron pushed himself up, for he had been lying on his stomach, and rubbed at his eyes in an effort to wake himself up. He felt strangely heavy, tired, and there was a strange breeze in the room that tickled along his back. "Where am I?"

An amused sounding huff came from somewhere nearby. "Honestly, Mr Weasley! How many other rooms in this castle are decorated like this?" The voice belonged to Madam Pomfrey.

Slowly, feeling every muscle of his body aching in protest, Ron stood only to promptly lose his balance and fall back down onto his cot just as Madam Pomfrey came around the privacy curtain. She paused, taking in the scene of Ron placing a hand to his head, eyes closed. "Now did I say you were well enough to get up yet?"

Her crisp inquiry was accompanied by a vial of headache remedy which Ron gratefully gulped without complaint. Giving the mediwitch a lopsided smile, Ron frowned slightly. "You know... I never noticed just how chipped the paint was in this place."

"I'm sure it is." Pomfrey agreed calmly, despite the fact that there was nothing at all wrong with the paint that she could see. "Now lay back down...No, on your stomach! And rest there while I check on the others." She kept her eyes on the boy as she backed out of the privacy curtains and into another section of the infirmary.

"Wait a minute!" It took nearly ten minutes before Ron realized that he was actually in the hospital wing. Despite having been told and knowing who Madam Pomfrey was, his brain wasn't quite up to par. "Why am I in the hospital wing?" He demanded, placing his taloned hands down on the mattress and pushing up once more.

Pause... Talons?

Ron stared at his hands, seeming to be lightly golden and missing most of the freckles. The tip of each finger had seemingly been replaced with a sharp talon. "Madam Pomfrey!" He shouted, springing up from the cot and dashing out past the privacy curtains and into the bright late morning sunlight streaming through the windows. Or at least he tried to dash. He more or less made it four feet out of the curtains before tripping over his own feet. "What happened to my... Feet!"

Sure enough, Ron's feet were different as well. They weren't like his hands, it seemed more as if someone had taken his feet and replaced them with an owl's! Short feathery tufts covered the tops and around his ankles, his feet hard and talons clicking sharply against the floor. Experimentally, he sent a thought down to curl one of his toes and the long, avian style digit responded appropriately. Ron screeched!

The sound that came from Ronald Weasley's throat was not in the slightest bit human. The panicked screech was shrill, breaking some of the nearer glass objects as Madam Pomfrey rushed over before he could do any more damage.

"Mr Weasley, please calm yourself before you break everything!" She reached down to help him to his feet. Ron was surprised that she seemed taller than he remembered. Sensing what he wanted, Pomfrey led him over to a large mirror that Professor Flitwick had brought up to the hospital wing for when the students awoke. "Now please, let me finish checking on the others. Assuming your screeching didn't wake them already!" She huffed and flounced off to attend to the others as Ron stared into the mirror.

The first thing he noticed was that he was actually shorter than before. No wonder Madam Pomfrey had seemed taller! Second, he was almost completely the pale golden color he had noticed on his hands. Only a few of his freckles had survived the golden transformation. The third thing was that his features were sharper, more bird-like. Next he stared at his piercing blue eyes. They seemed mostly unchanged, but he could see tiny flecks of grey and even green in his own eyes that he had never noticed before. After a moment of admiration for what he decided was an attractive eye color, Ron's gaze traveled upward, taking in his hair... Or at least what used to be his hair.

Sleeked backwards, neat despite just waking after what was at least a night since the sun was brightly shining, a myriad of feathers both long and short were atop Ron's head. The feathers were a nearly the same red his hair had been, though they held a shimmer that gleamed golden in the light. As his surprise grew, the feathers lifted along his head, cresting into a feathery mohawk. Squawking softly, Ron stumbled back, unconsciously lifting wings to steady himself... Wings!

Eyes as large as saucers, Ron twisted this way and that in the mirror. The new feathered appendages seemed to react like any other limb of his body. The feathers adorning his wings were the opposite of his hair, golden and glimmering with a reddish hue in the light. Each wing appeared to be about as long as he now was tall, around five feet and eight inches, he guessed. Spreading the wings, he looked at himself in the mirror. He flapped the wings experimentally, his mind for a moment wondering if he could actually fly. Then it hit him like a ton of bricks.

"I'm a ruddy bird!"

"We already knew that, Weasel. About time you admitted it."

Spinning around at the familiar drawl, Ron glared into the silver eyes of Draco Malfoy. A Draco Malfoy that was covered from head to toe in short white fur that glimmered like freshly fallen snow. His usual sneer looked positively vicious on the small muzzle Draco seemed to have grown and the wolfish tail coming swishing behind him almost like an excited puppy caused Ron to laugh.

"Brilliant! I knew you were a ferret, I just didn't know you were a mangy mutt as well!" Ron's laugh was a bit high pitched and caused Draco to wince slightly and reach up to rub his pointed fuzzy ears.

Pausing at the feel of his ears, Draco stormed unsteadily over to the mirror and shoved Ron aside. His expression remained unchanged as he took in the white fur, fur that was longer and thicker on the tail that protruded from a hole neatly sliced in the back of the white hospital pants. His feet were more like paws, black claws on his toes. His hands looked the same, save for the white fuzz covering them. It was his face that had changed the most. Draco's nose and jaw had drawn out to create what could only be a stubby version of some kind of canine's muzzle. And his nose pad, yes, his nose was now like a dog's, was a soft grey color that went nicely with the white fuzz on his face.

Draco sneered at his reflection, lip curling easily up and showing off sharp fangs. Another pause and he opened his muzzle wide, examining the sparkling fangs and the rather long tongue. His eyes narrowed as he heard the Weasel still laughing. Draco whirled, a snarl deep in his throat. "Better watch yourself, bird-brain. Or I'll be making sure that they're serving giant chicken for dinner tonight."

Whatever reply Ron could have made was broken off as he gulped. A semi-frightened look came over his avian features as Draco suddenly felt two hands clamp down on his shoulders, two very large hands. Draco spun away from the touch, sneer falling away and eyes growing wide in horror as he tilted his head upward.

"Play nicely ferret, or they'll be serving puppy surprise instead of chicken..."

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Next time: Who was it that warned Draco? Which students wake up next? Stay tuned and find out. )

Reviews cherished, even the kind that burn...


	4. Awakening Different pt II

Disclaimer: I just want the Weasley Twins... Rowling can have the rest.

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Sitting bolt upright in bed, Ginevra Weasley wasn't sure if it had been the high pitched yelp of some animal in pain or the loud, threatening roar of another animal that had woken her from sleep. All she really knew was that she was now awake. Stumbling out of the bed, which turned out to be one of the ones in the Hospital Wing, Ginny slipped out from the privacy screens and stared blankly at the scene before her.

Leaning against each other, deep rumbling laughs echoing in their chests, were two massive creatures. Nearly seven feet tall and solidly muscled, Ginny could only assume that due to the ginger hair beneath black stripes and the sheer identical properties of the two that the tiger creatures were her twin brothers. She blinked, observing the way their tails swished playfully and the faded gray stripes that she could see on their faces and arms. She thankfully couldn't tell if they had stripes everywhere and sent a silent thanks to whatever deity had decided that clothing was a good thing to have.

The twins were standing over a white furred, wolfish seeming Malfoy and a decidedly smaller bird of another brother. While the twins laughed loudly, showing off elongated feline fangs, and Ron practically chirped with mirth, Ginny shook her head. For some reason she felt as if she should turn and run away from the boys. But that was silly, and definitely not good to do around the twins. Running would only result in pranks.

So, considering that Ginny was wise enough to know that if they were all in the Hospital Wing and if the others had been changed, chances were that she had as well. Drawing herself up, she padded over to the mirror apparently set up for their use and, ignoring the boys, stared at herself.

Raising her hand to lightly touch the mirror, Ginny's expression was blank. Her entire body seemed to be covered with a deep, dark reddish brown colored fuzz. She couldn't see a trace of her freckles at all anymore. Her hair was a darker blood red and, using one almost paw-like hand to brush the strands aside, she saw that beneath the curls, her ears were smaller and rounder. Ginny's brown eyes remained unchanged as she looked at the tiny trace of a muzzle complete with a soft black nose and long black whiskers.

Tracing th reflection of her face, Ginny eventually lowered her gaze. Her fingers had faint traces of webbing when she spread them and a quick glance at her feet revealed that her new paws had the same webbed look. A sharp turn and a soft inhalation later and Ginny was looking at the thick reddish brown tail that reached her ankles. Brows furrowing in concentration and she managed to make the thick tail swish. She grimaced, an expression that only deepened when she saw the sharp little teeth now filling her minuscule muzzle.

The boys had stopped scuffling and laughing once they realized she was there and were silently staring at the changes in the youngest Weasley even as she observed herself. Finally, she broke the silence.

"I'm going back to bed. Wake me when this dream is over."

And that was just what Ginny did. She turned, padded softly back over to the screens she had emerged from and disappeared once more. The sounds following her departure fit with the concept of someone going back to bed.

Clearing his throat once his sister was gone, the rumbly, almost purring voice of George Weasley followed. "Ok, what exactly were you guys mixing in that bathroom that didn't blend well with our potion?" He turned his gaze to Ron, not seeming to notice that his twin Fred was circling him as if he were inspecting himself in a mirror.

Whatever Ron would have said in reply was cut off by a loud scream that was half feline screech causing all attention to jerk in the direction of the screens across from Ginny's cot. The twins, surprising even their selves, growled softly in response to the feline scream, their eyes narrowing as they started toward the screens surrounding the bed. Ron slowly backed up while Draco finally realized he was still lying sprawled on the floor from where the twins had knocked him and stood.

One hand reaching out to open the curtain, Fred's voice was a mixture of concern and something else when he spoke. "Are you ok in th-... ACK!"

Unable to complete opening the screen, Fred found himself knocked flat on his back as something solid slammed right into his chest. The slam was bad enough, but the thing wasn't content to just lie atop him. It was clawing at the stunned Fred, snarling and, judging from the rowls of pain from the tiger twin, kicking and biting as well.

Several stunned moments later and George tackled the violent creature from the side, rolling with it across the floor and struggling to subdue the beast. It wasn't until he had the thing's arms pinned behind it's back and managed to haul the writhing thing to its feet that they recognized the creature.

"Hermione?"

"Granger!"

It probably shouldn't have surprised them that whatever had happened to them had affected the normally composed prefect the most. After all, the explosion of potions had happened practically right in her face. They had all suffered various animalistic reactions upon awakening, but that didn't explain why her reaction was so violent. Nor did it explain why she continued to thrash in some combination of fear and rage in George's hold.

Stunned into silence once more, the boys looked at the transformed Hermione. She was a lot taller, nearly six feet to judge by the way she thrashed against the taller tiger. Like Ginny and Draco, she was covered in soft fuzz, only her fur was a golden tan color. Her hair was longer and even wilder than they remembered and the top of soft, rounded ears were visible. Like the twins, Hermione had a long thrashing tail, golden tan with a dark chocolate brown tip that matched the visible tips of her ears. From her fingertips and toes claws were convulsively extending and retracting as she struggled for freedom.

Her snarl showed similar feline fangs, the sight made only worse by the traces of blood on her fangs and lips. A glance at Fred showed him tenderly touching various scratches and bite marks where the thin Hospital clothing had done nothing to protect his skin from the claws and teeth of the feline Gryffindor. But it was the look in her once chocolate brown eyes that caused Ron to stumble backwards, tripping over his own feet again and landing on his arse. The amber orbs were feral, angry... Hungry.

"Calm down, Hermione!" George pleaded. Though he was holding her easily enough, the thrashing of the girl that, like he and his twin, had added more muscle during her transformation was painful to hold... Seeing as the claws on her feet were managing to get several shreds into his shins. "Please!"

"Stupid Weasle. Its bad enough you've gotten us all turned into... THINGS! But can't you at least shut her up?" Draco's words were half command, half pained as he attempted to protect his more sensitive ears from the yowls and screeches of the banshee cat.

George blinked at the command and, without pausing to think of what he was doing, he tilted his head to the side and bit down gently on the back of Hermione's neck. Almost instantly she stopped her screeching, though she still gave the occasional thrash. Hermione panted, her expression something between submissive and what could only be considered murderous.

Taking in the expression, Fred laughed. "Well, that's using your instincts to subdue a female. Better hold onto her, though. Looks like she'll kill you once she gets free."

The blush that rose on George's face made the gray stripes on his cheeks stand out even more.

Unable to get back to sleep once Hermione had awakened, Ginny had observed the entire incident by way of peeking around the edge of her curtain. She was about to withdraw once more when something caught her attention. "Oh my God, Harry!"

Everyone spun at the sound, first looking at Ginny and then turning in the direction she was looking and gasped.

Though he was much the same height, Harry, like several of the others, had added muscle. His body, while not covered in the fuzzy fur that most of the others had, had paled to the point where Draco's natural coloring looked like a tan. His messy black hair was tipped in silver and made his bright emerald eyes stand out even more... Emerald hues that now had vertical slivers of silver instead of normal pupils. Black cloven hooves, making a heavy clop sound with each careful step he took, trying to maintain his balance. Each of Harry's hands was now missing a finger, giving him four digits per hand. Long, pale ears stuck visibly out of his messy locks. But his biggest change was similar to Ron's. A pair of large black wings graced his back, each of the feathers tipped with silver giving a starry speckle appearance to the graceful appendages.

"Is it just me..." Harry began. "Or did something go terribly wrong the last time we were all together?"

At Harry's words, Hermione had stopped struggling. "George..." Her voice was slightly rough and sent shivers down George's spine before he finally, carefully, released his hold on her. "Thanks, George."

Ginny reemerged from her curtained off section of the Hospital Wing and the seven students stood in a loose semi-circle inspecting each other.

Ron and Harry were sharing thoughtful looks before Ron asked his earlier question for the second time. "So... Do you think we can fly?"

Fred left the circle after glaring at Hermione to swipe a potion for the scratches and bites while George started a debate with Harry and Ron about if they could fly or not. Hermione slumped down, a soft growl trying to form in her throat for reasons she couldn't understand and Ginny stayed off to one side. It was Draco who interrupted the little 'moment' everyone was happening by bringing to mind what the twins had wondered earlier.

"What the hell were you Gryffindor-s..." He adjusted what he was going to say just before turning their house name into Gryffindorks. "Doing anyway? What turned us into monsters?" His fists were clenched, a growl in his throat as he glared at each of the Gryffindors in turn.

"That, Mister Malfoy, is precisely what we would like to know."

At the voice, all seven teenagers turned toward the doorway where Professors Dumbledore, McGonagall and Snape stood next to Madam Pomfrey, waiting for some answers.

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A/N: So Shorty, since you are my one reviewer, is there anything in particular you would like to see from the story? ) 


	5. Dumbledore's Decision

Disclaimer: I wish I may... I wish I might...

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"That, Mister Malfoy, is precisely what we would like to know."

At the voice, all seven teenagers turned toward the doorway where Professors Dumbledore, McGonagall and Snape stood next to Madam Pomfrey, waiting for some answers.

If any of the students had suddenly sprouted antlers, the 'deer-in-the-headlights' look would have been perfect. As it was, the adults that had arrived were allowed only a split second for the initial surprise caused by their arrival to give way to instinctive reactions.

Draco backed up, wary and distrustful of their arrival while he literally bristled to show that he wouldn't take an attack against him lying down. Ron ruffled his wings as if he were about to finally answer his flying question once and for all as Fred and George both took on more aggressive stances. Harry's reaction was easily conquered as whatever he had become seemed to see no cause for threat or alarm in their arrival. Ginny's curiosity was piqued and it almost seemed as if she were going to offer to play a game with them. Exploding Snap, perhaps?

Unfortunately, as before, it was poor Hermione that had the worst reaction. The start threw her right back to where she was before she had calmed down. Nearly deafening the others with a savage roar, she leaped straight into the air and over the heads of the other students in an aggressive attack. Her action startled the others into acting and in a split second, with only the sharp sounds of claws and hooves against the hard floor, Harry tackled his best female friend and sent them both into the ground by sheer force. The twins were right behind Harry and used the combined brute strength they had been given to help subdue the crazy wild cat their friend had become.

"Maybe give her another love bite!" Ginny's chirpy comment was amused and, judging from the looks given to her by all, not entirely welcome at the moment.

McGonagall and Pomfrey, both of whom had backed up upon seeing the reactions of the students, now approached slowly with Dumbledore and Snape. Dumbledore seemed nonplussed, if not slightly amused, by the events and Snape had been practically drooling at having a potential excuse to expel the Gryffindor know-it-all to move.

"Dear me, that just won't do at all..." Dumbledore's words were more to himself than anything else. He waved a hand slightly and a small sprinkling of tiny green confetti like pieces sprinkled down atop the wild Hermione. Almost instantly she calmed, inhaling deeply. Fred and George seemed to share her reaction and even McGonagall appeared to be suppressing a reaction.

"Really, Albus... Catnip!"

Dumbledore's cheerful humming and twinkling eyes were not in the least subdued by McGonagall's slightly strained, reproving tone. "While I am certain that we could have found an adequate potion or charm to subdue Miss Granger, we must not overlook the obvious and admittedly simple routes available to us." He seated himself as he turned his attention once more to the students. "Now, we were attempting to establish the potions that caused this transformation?"

At his prompt, Ron lowered his head slightly, an almost sheepish expression around his hawk-like features. "We were working on a.." He hesitated. "Polyjuice potion." Before he rushed to add: "But it wasn't finished yet and I don't know what it was Peeves stole from the Fred and George!"

The professors present turned to look expectantly at the twins only to meet the sight of the three feline students purring and kittenishly rubbing their cheeks and noses against each other over the catnip.

"Er... Perhaps you were right, Minerva." Dumbledore, eyes still twinkling madly with his internal amusement, waved a hand to remove the catnip and allow the Weasley twins and Hermione a chance to regain their senses.

"Ugh! Get off me you gits!" Thankfully Hermione seemed to have been placated enough by the catnip dose to not lunge back into the feral feline mindset from earlier.

"Hey, it isn't as if we could control that response! You were rubbing against us just as much!" George defended.

Fred just glared at Hermione, his eyes silently promising retribution for her earlier attack.

"Misters Weasley," Snape barked. "If you two would be so kind as to inform us as to what you were using that mixed with the Polyjuice to create this effect..."

After wide golden eyes almost, but not quite, resembling deer as they stared at Snape, George and Fred shared a glance. Thus Fred was elected spokesman of the moment. "It was something we concocted based off of the Animagus Reveal potion. It was supposed to temporarily target one random part of a person's personality and bring forth the animal most suited to that part. The changes only lasted ten minutes in the tests." Both he and George seemed pained at revealing any of their secrets.

Snape would never admit to being impressed by Gryffindors, but more than once the Weasley twins potion skills had managed to do just that. Considering that they had already admitted to having successfully tested the potions, this was one of those times. "I require the ingredients and instructions for brewing that potion in my possession after dinner tonight so that I can begin working on an antidote." Sparing only an evil look at the students, Snape swept out of the Hospital Wing.

"Twenty points to Gryffindor for successfully brewing such a potion." The amused tone of Dumbledore brought grins to the faces of the Gryffindors while causing Draco to sneer. "Now, as for what to do with you seven... I cannot foresee any reason to keep you all secluded within the Hospital Wing, so you may return to your schedules at lunch time." It was almost lunch already, so they didn't see any problems with this.

"You can't honestly expect us to wander around the school looking like freaks, can you? Sure Potter is used to that kind of thing..." Draco almost instantly shut his mouth, realizing that insulting Potter in front of the other Gryffindors and Dumbledore wouldn't get him anything.

Dumbledore wiggled his fingers dismissively. "I'm sure, if Miss Granger's actions are any sign, that you will all have some troubles walking amongst the other students, so I will arrange for a private instructor to come and help all of you learn to control your inner beasts." Dumbledore seemed only more amused at the idea. "Yes, I know just the perfect teacher for this sort of thing. Minerva, could you have the house elves bring up and alter some clothing for these seven?"

"Of course, Albus." Tutting softly to herself at forgetting such a detail, McGonagall walked briskly out of the room as Dumbledore rose.

"As for myself, I'll see you seven later about adding your new lessons to your schedules... Right after I send an owl to your new teacher." Eyes twinkling, Dumbledore ambled out in McGonagall's wake.

Hermione fiddled with the hem of her hospital shirt, cheeks faintly pink over being the main reason they now had to take an extra class. Or perhaps it was because Ginny had wandered over to her and was teasing her about the catnip reaction. Ron and Harry started up their flying debate once more, apparently they were really into the idea and, knowing them, were going to be jumping off the Astronomy Tower later to settle the issue once and for all. Fred and George were discussing ways to turn their anichange potion into a candy. And Draco...

Draco was conflicted. On one hand he wanted nothing more than to avada all the Gryffindors and Dumbledore as well. On the other he was starting to feel as if killing the six currently sharing the hospital wing with him was a horrible thing. Draco was feeling oddly protective of them.

Banging his head lightly against the frame of the mirror they had been using earlier, Draco muttered to himself. "Just kill me now..."

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A/N: That's all for this chapter. I hope it wasn't too disappointing. Hooray! I've got two visible fans now! cheers Thanks Shorty and Kanna-chii!

Shorty: I've already got a plan for Snape and the cure potion. Though I'm sure its not really what you have in mind. I'll keep variations spinning in my head at this point. And I'm not planning on having Draco remain friends with them once things are back to normal. This chapter touches on the reason why he'll be friendly to them under the potion's influence, but he'll be back to his lovable bastard self once the tale is over. ;)


	6. Rejoining the School

Disclaimer: Once I get in touch with a competent thief... But I suppose chances of getting it from the thief are just as good as getting it from Rowling.

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"What do you mean barefoot?" 

"Just that, Ronald. There is no possible way to modify shoes to fit on your chicken feet!"

"Chicken! Chicken! I am NOT a bloody chicken!"

"You can't prove that. We don't know what any of us really are anymore except your brothers!"

"I am -not- a chicken! I'm an owl, or a hawk, or... Or... I'm just NOT a chicken!"

"It doesn't matter what you are, Ron! You can't wear shoes!" Hermione was about ten seconds away from hexing the chicken-boy. She turned, catching sight of Ginny who seemed to be having trouble walking on her modified shoes. "In fact, maybe none of us can wear them." She looked thoughtful.

Ginny nodded in agreement. "Its like a part of me is cut off with these things on my feet." Her thick tail caused her robes to sway as she unconsciously swung it from side to side. "I feel kind of lost." Admitting defeat, Ginny sat down on the floor and tugged off her shoes and socks. Standing once more, she no longer had any trouble walking around the infirmary floor.

"At least we've figured out that the best way to manage the tails is to not think about them." That was Fred. "And we all know Ron's a pigeon." He was intentionally steering the conversation back to annoying Ron.

Face turning a more violent shade of red than it had been after arguing with Hermione, Ron shook his fist at Fred. "Argh! Just you wait, tigertail! I'm going to lug you up into the air and drop you without a broom!"

The twins just laughed at the threat as they finished adjusting their robes. George was admiring himself in the mirror. "Why didn't we think to dye our hair ages ago, Gred? We look smashing with stripes."

Fred was too busy adjusting his tail to listen though.

"I look like an idiot." That was Harry, twisting this way and that to see how the Hogwarts robe fell around and between his wings... He tapped a foot, listening to the clipping sound. "And I feel like I'm wearing high heels."

Draco rolled his eyes. He had been silent since the house elves had arrived earlier and was probably only remaining because he didn't want to face the lunch crowd in the Great Hall alone. His arms were folded over his chest and he was openly sulking.

"Ha! I'd like to see you last a day in real high heels. Those things can be a bloody pain at first."

Everyone got a laugh out of that because it had been -George- to make that comment!

"All right gang, lets go frighten the kiddies..."

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"ROOOOOOAAAAAAR!"

The doors of the Great Hall burst open to the sound of a monstrous roar and two tiger striped terrors sprang into the room. It seemed that they had pounced straight from the doorway and landed atop two of the tables scattering dishes everywhere. Gryffindors and Hufflepuffs leaped from their seats, a couple of the first years screaming as their tables, the ones under the beastly assault of the twins, fell into carnage... Right up until Alicia Spinnet and Angelina Johnson recognized them and whacked them upside their heads.

Despite the hopes of the twins, they had been so active in their entrance that no one had even noticed their changes until they were rather forcibly stunned into temporary submission by two of the Gryffindor Chasers. Once they had stopped, leaning back and rubbing their bruised heads, several students stepped back in shock. The only sound was the clicking of heels as they assumed Professor McGonagall was coming over to bring the twins into line.

Their hopes were dashed as the altered Harry Potter click-clacked his way past the twins, drawing attention to his feet as people looked for high heels. He was followed by the relatively calm Hermione Granger, the faintly clicking Ron Weasley and the amused and bouncy Ginny Weasley to his normal seat at the Gryffindor table. With most of the student body's attention on the brave Gryffindors, no one noticed Draco slinking over to the Slytherin table. It was one of the rare times he was glad for the legendary Gryffindor bravery.

"Ten points from Gryffindor! Fred, George, clean up that mess." The stern voice of McGonagall from the head table broke the moment of stunned silence.

Grinning like idiots, the twins removed themselves from the tables and started cleaning up with flicks of their wands while annoyingly ignoring the questions now being sent to all six of them.

For their part, Ginny and the Trio made it clear they were going to eat before answering any questions and tucked in to their food... Mmm... Food. That was when the sheer desire to eat revealed further changes thanks to the potion.

Ginny ate normally, seeming to be the only one unaffected by the mishap.

Harry took a bite of his stew and spat it out with a disgusted look on his face. After much sampling, he found himself on a lunch diet of lettuce and apples.

Ron seemed to have developed a craving for the baked fish and was solely concentrating on that at the moment.

Hermione, Fred, George (once they had finished cleaning and seated themselves) and the still unnoticed Draco were sticking to anything with meat as if it had gone out of style.

The only thing that really shocked the students watching the transformed was that not a one of them bothered using any type of utensils when eating! While it wasn't uncommon for Ron, seeing someone like Hermione tearing into a hunk of meat in her hands with sharp fangs was more than a little unnerving for the others and Neville, whom she was sitting next to, slid a bit away from her with a nervous gulp.

"Hey, Malfoy... When did you get a muzzle?" The slow, dim witted, loud comment from Vincent Crabbe drew that little bit of attention to Draco that he had hoped to avoid as all of the students turned to stare...

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Explaining things ended up waiting until after dinner, as lunch had only revealed that the seven students had larger appetites than normal; though that could have just been the result of spending a couple days in the infirmary. The only real problem they encountered that afternoon was when George almost ate one of the mice during Transfiguration. Thankfully Lee Jordan was paying attention and stopped him in time.

The group of six Gryffindors and one disgruntled Slytherin lingered in the Great Hall after dinner that night to finally clue in the rest of the students. So, with a dramatic reenactment of the scene by the twins punctuated with the matter-of-facts from Hermione and the occasional self-promoting comment from Draco (that no one really believed except Crabbe and Goyle), the students eventually quit the Great Hall and went back to their common rooms. Of course just attempting to go to bed was suddenly filled with dangers.

-:-:In the seventh year Gryffindor boys dormitory...

"Ow! Get off my tail you prat! That hurts!"

"Well if you hadn't been crawling under your bed, it wouldn't have happened. What are you looking for anyway?" George peered down curiously at Fred, grinning as his twin tenderly ministered to the bruised appendage.

"I thought I heard a mouse and figured you might want a snack." Fred grinned wickedly at George only to be smacked upside the head with a pillow...

-:-:Meanwhile, two floors below the seventh year boys dorm...

"What was that spell Hermione told us to adjust our shirts again?" Ron asked as he held up his old Chudley Cannons tee.

"I don't think anyone would care if you just went and ripped the thing, Ron." Seamus mused almost thoughtfully as he looked at the old shirt Ron was displaying.

"Oy! You stop pickin' on the Cannons!"

Neville was more curious about... "So how are you two going to sleep with those big wings?"

"They could always curl up in a pile of blankets and tuck their heads under their wings." Seamus suddenly found Ron's Chudley Cannons shirt in his face. "Ew, do you ever wash this thing?"

And on the same level, not too incredibly far away where the fifth year girls slept...

"Oh my gosh, Hermione! You're like so buff! I bet you could totally stomp Malfoy's goons into the floor by yourself!" Lavender squealed with delight.

"Ow! Watch the decibels there!"

"Whatever it was that happened to you guys did absolutely nothing for your hair though."

"That's true, Parvati. Don't worry though, 'Mione! We'll help you manage those wild locks!" If anything, Lavender found a higher pitch than before.

While covering her ears in pain, Hermione growled softly. "Please! You're hurting my ears!" But it seemed that her dorm mates were no longer listening. Instead they seemed to be verbally designing a whole new wardrobe to show off the new catty attitude of the Gryffindor bookworm. "I'm serious here... I won't be held responsible if you two don't stop..."

-:-:One floor below...

Ginny was suddenly yoinked from her comfortable nest of blankets by the sounds of shrieks and snarls coming from above her head and she laughed softly to herself. Pulling a pillow over her head and going back to sleep while Hermione tortured her room mates.

-:-:Quite a bit away from the tower, in the cold damp dungeons of Hogwarts...

Snarling almost savagely, Draco shoved Pansy from his bed. "I told you that I didn't want you to touch me! Now get away before I find out if I'm capable of ripping your head off!"

Whimpering much like a mongrel mutt, Pansy fled the boys dorm as Draco pulled the curtains around his bed shut and curled up atop his blankets. He shivered slightly, feeling strangely alone and cold though the thought of being in the company of Parkinson or any of his dorm mates made him cringe.

"Stupid wolves..." He muttered, attempting to fall asleep.

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A/N: I really don't like how this part turned out. But for the life of me I couldn't think of anything better and felt I needed filler material. Please don't hate me for abusing certain characters, aka Brown, Patil and Parkinson... It just seemed like the thing to do at the time. -winks- Oh yeah... I was originally going to have the first confrontation of the Hybrids with Umbridge into this chapter, but it occurred to me that while I've read fanfics with the character, I haven't actually read the fifth book and have no idea how to attempt to portray the evil woman. So I'm going to do some research and I'll have the toad in the next chapter. Promise. 


	7. First Special Class

Disclaimer: I'm not doing anymore disclaimers in this story. I've said those kind of things enough times already. If people really mistake my writing for J.K.'s.. Then I guess maybe I should come up with my own series and make a fortune, hmm?

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If they hadn't already known from watching the ways the foul woman treated Hagrid, the fact that seven students in the course of two days had been banned from taking Defense Against the Dark Arts would have tipped them off. Almost as soon as each of them had entered their respective DADA classes, Delores Umbridge had crossed her arms and declared that she wouldn't have such distractions in her classroom and they were to march themselves right off to someplace far from her classroom. Bringing it to Dumbledore's attention hadn't done any good, as the toad had merely said she had a right to keep distractions from the other students and if Albus had a problem with it, she would go straight to the Minister. Needless to say, Umbridge hadn't made any friends with her newest ruling.

On the plus side, the seven were now outside near Hagrid's hut waiting for their first special class. Hermione had been a good enough reason all on her own over the two days since they had awakened for why the class was necessary. Her feline type had been categorized as a cougar, possibly triggered by the aggressive feelings she had when Peeves had dared to mess with -her- potion. The real bonus from her transformation was that Parvati and Lavender no longer chattered their inane gossip when she was around.

Ginny had been tagged as an otter when they had found her coming out of the lake with a fish snagged in her teeth the previous day. While normally such a sight might have disgusted them, something about seeing the otterish Weasley with a self-satisfied, silly grin and a fish in her mouth had only made them laugh. The Giant Squid had even raised a tentacle to wave farewell to her, seemed the poor thing actually liked it when people would go and visit it in the lake.

They hadn't figured out just what Harry was yet. He seemed to be a blend of several different things and all they had learned about Ron was that causing him to scream like a little girl when playing with his fear of spiders was painful. It had been in the middle of the Great Hall during breakfast that very morning when they had learned this. George had thought it would be interesting to see if Ron's arachnophobia remained or if he would eat the spider before he realized what he was doing.

To further the experiment, George had transfigured Ron's fork into a fat, hairy tarantula while his brother was contemplating using the utensil as opposed to his fingers that morning. The reaction, while painful, was completely worth it in George and Fred's eyes when Ron leaped straight up from his seat with a screech so loud, high pitched and long that it had shattered every glass item in the hall that hadn't been cast with an unbreakable charm. Of course the laughter hadn't come until later as the six others with enhanced hearing had been on the floor clutching their ears in pain. Even those normal students closest to Ron had been forced to cover their ears from the sound.

As they sat or stood around the clearing near Hagrid's that had been chosen for their new class, they spoke softly to one another. Fred and Ron were poking at Harry, speculating on anything from Crumple-horned Snorkacks to goat-bats for his breed. George was... Well, George was braiding Ginny's hair while she chatted with Hermione. It was rather amusing to watch as he nodded his head and occasionally added his own comment. And it was kind of creepy to see that, for all appearances, he was actually capable of keeping up with their girl talk. Draco was leaning against a tree, arms crossed and a bored expression on his face. The look was most likely feigned though, as his eyes were trained on the girl-talk trio and seemed to be amused.

Their relatively quiet moment was soon interrupted by a familiar voice. "Well, when Albus owled me to say that there was a problem I could be help with, he certainly wasn't kidding."

Seven heads spun toward the voice and several reactions happened at once. "Remus!" "Professor Lupin!" "Snuffles!" For someone had spotted the large, Grim-like black dog standing beside Remus Lupin. "Grrr!" The last one drew attention as it came from the previously calm Draco Malfoy. The same Draco Malfoy that now seemed to almost fly across the clearing to tackle the werewolf known as Remus Lupin in an aggressive manner that was reminiscent of Hermione's attack on Fred several days before.

Remus seemed to be expecting something like this, however and he rolled with the tackle, flipping Draco over his head as they landed. A short scuffle later and the more experienced werewolf soon had Draco face-down on the ground and was sitting on his back to keep him pinned there. The stunned looks caused Remus to chuckle as they waited for Draco to calm down.

"And I can see now that he was right. Mr Malfoy, you are not just any dog as the others have no doubt teased you. Your reaction to my mere presence is not something a dog would do when confronted by a werewolf. It is, however, what a wolf would do in defense of his pack to my presence."

Ginny snorted softly, disguising a giggle. "You mean he sees -us- as his pack?" Her comment caused snickers from the boys while Draco hid his face in the grass.

The werewolf didn't join in the snickers, though from the chuffing sound coming from 'Snuffles' he was indulging in a laugh at Malfoy's expense. "From what I was told of the situation, it seems reasonable. His first moments as his mind adjusted to the change were spent in the infirmary with you six constantly nearby. Your scents, constantly present during the transformation were probably like when a wolf cub is first born, associating the scents present in the den with those of his pack. As a werewolf, I understand him better than I understand the rest of you right now..."

The snickers fell silent under the cool amber gaze of Remus as he reminded them of just why he was there. Who better to help them learn to control their new impulses than a former Professor that had spent most of his life controlling similar impulses? Dumbledore was too brilliant sometimes.

"I'd have thought Malfoy would take the lone wolf mentality as opposed to impressing upon his 'enemies' as his pack mates, though." But then again, Hermione was rather brilliant as well.

"That is something that only Mr Malfoy would ever be able to answer." After finally making certain that Draco knew he wasn't planning on hurting his pack, Remus stood and helped the young man to his feet.

Despite the questioning looks now placed upon Draco, he refrained from answering in favor of straightening his robes and blatantly ignoring the others.

Taking a moment to look over the group, Remus only raised a brow slightly at George who was finishing Ginny's hair before smiling. "Now, I think I know what we should do first." He turned his gaze to Harry and Ron. "Let's all go to the Astronomy Tower..."

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Thirty or so minutes later, the group of nine was now standing atop the Astronomy Tower as Remus drew his wand. "Now, just to be on the safe side, I think I'm going to require that all of you," And here he pointed at Fred, George, Ginny, Hermione and Draco. "Take out your wands and keep them trained on Harry and Ron. Be prepared to cast i Windgardium Leviosa /i as soon as they scream..." He grinned. "Harry, Ron... Don't scream unless you truly can't fly. Don't panic while you try to coordinate yourselves but don't wait too long to let us know there's something wrong."

Ron was bouncing slightly with excitement and had been since they had started up the tower. Harry seemed unnaturally serene for someone that was about to jump off the tower. When both turned to face the grounds, Hermione cast a quick cushioning charm on them, just in case.

"On the count of three: One... Two... Three!" On three, they threw themselves off the Tower with all the enthusiasm of Oliver Wood devising a new Quidditch program!

Ginny's breath hitched as she stifled her own scream at the sight and everyone hurried over to get a better view. Far below she could faintly see Sirius in human form, wand trained upward toward the two falling boys. She thought her heart was going to burst from the force as she dug her short claws into the railing. Then, like something out of a dream, first Ron and then Harry seemed to visibly relax and wings spread wide before they went soaring back up instead of falling downward.

"Ginny, breathe!"

Startled by Fred's sudden reminder, Ginny gasped loudly before gulping in some much needed oxygen. "I don't think I should have watched that... They're trying to give us all heart attacks, I know it!"

Laughing cheerfully, the twins pulled Ginny away from the ledge and back down the stairs with a comment about meeting them when they decided to land.

"Yes, I think we should go back to the clearing now. I'll call them down in a bit." Remus ushered Hermione and Draco down the stairs and back outside in time to see Snuffles playfully chasing Ginny back to the clearing. He walked slowly back, watching as Hermione and Draco exchanged glares and seeming as if they were both fighting instincts. The amusing thing was, Hermione was fighting the urge to attack Draco and Draco was trying to force himself to attack her. Remus merely shook his head and, true to his word, called Ron and Harry down as they reached the clearing.

Landing was something they would definitely need to practice.

"Now that we have that out of the way, we need to work on impulse control. While I've noticed that none of you seem to have a problem controlling yourselves when you are aware of what you're doing, you all have trouble with the sudden impulses. This is something you will definitely need to work on or there's going to be some very..." Remus stopped, a faint bit of color rising to his cheeks. "Well, it could result in Hermione and Ginny having to spend some time in isolation."

At his words, the boys merely looked confused. Being a bit more perceptive than the males, Hermione and Ginny shared identical expressions of horror...

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A/N: Thanks to my wonderful reviewers. I hope that you all continue to enjoy the tale. More hints of certain things will be dropped, but they'll be skirted around. I don't intend on writing any smut. Sorry to those that wanted it. 


	8. Regular Classes

**A/N:** Because someone asked, I'll try to be a bit more descriptive in their appearances in this one. And, for the record, if you want a sort of idea what I mean by hybrids, think Thundercats, only more realistic, more species and with tails or wings. Some of them are more humanish like Fred, George and Harry while some are safely in between like Ginny and Hermione while Ron and Draco have more animal traits. Does that help?

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In the distant North Tower of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, two twin tigerlicious terrors were currently mumbling dire pranks to pull upon Professor Trelawny. Their already quiet voices were muffled even further by the fact that they had buried their noses and mouths beneath several layers of clothing just to enter the fragrant tower room.

When they had first entered the room, Trelawny had made a big production of pointing out that she had warned them of big changes coming to the school this year. The seventh years bothering to take the course for easy grades had merely rolled their eyes and, for the most part, were doing homework for other classes. Fred and George, who usually used this time for plotting pranks, were discussing what to do to get back at Hermione for the attack in the Hospital Wing several days ago.

Lee Jordan, while helping the twins with ideas, couldn't help but chuckle as he watched the way their striped tails twitched with anticipation. Deciding to see just what would happen when a person grabbed a tiger by the tail, Lee darted both hands out and snatched their tails mid-twitch. The muscular twins had been so involved in their discussion that the unfamiliar sensation of someone touching their tails startled both of them into jumping up. "Jordan!" "Lee!"

Thankfully for Lee, and unfortunately for Fred and George, jumping up and pulled their faces from their protective coverings and the twins were subjected to the full force of Trelawny's incense filled room. They swayed comically for a moment before the aroma overwhelmed them and both young men toppled over. A slight twitch from Fred's leg was the only movement as Lee stared at them with wide eyes.

"My dear boy, whatever is the matter over there?"

Lee, taking one look at the twins, turned a serious look to Professor Trelawny's inquiry. "They saw the Grim ma'am! And just fell right over, I think I'll take them to Madam Pomfrey now and hope that it's not too late!"

With a casting of dual mobilicorpus, Lee rescued the twins from the horrors of Trelawny's class and carted them down to the infirmary. As he left, Lee was hard pressed to keep from laughing as Trelawny worked herself into something of a hysterical mess while the other students tried to calm her down...

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Deep within the bowels of the castle dungeons, where the fresh air and sunlight from above never penetrated, Ginny Weasley sat next to Colin Creevey in their potions class wondering just when the phrase 'bowels' first started being used to describe places like the dungeons. That led to another thought which caused Ginny to giggle and her face to turn bright red at the idea of anything being able to penetrate bowels that were lorded over by Snape. This didn't help her any and she almost fell out of her chair with a little shriek when Snape's place in that thought moved to another, dirtier part of the situation.

"What is wrong with you, Ginny?" Colin nudged her, hoping she would collect herself before Snape came into the classroom. "Cool it before Snape gets here!"

Colin never would find out what he had said that caused Ginny to fall out of her chair in fit of giggles.

It took three students and half a calming draught to get Ginny under control and back in her seat. As it was, they had only just taken their own seats when Snape swooped out of his private lab and into the classroom. Halfway to the front of the room, Snape paused and stared hard at Ginny before visibly shaking off some thought or another and continuing to the front.

"Today we will be brewing the base of the Polyjuice potion. This should be a simple enough task for a group of fourth years, as Miss Weasley was kind enough to demonstrate. These bases will be used in forming an antidote for your beastly classmates, so I suggest making certain you don't brew a poison..." Snape gave a wave of his wand toward the blackboard, the ingredients being revealed and, with a final glare at the students, he sat down at his desk.

Blushing slightly at being singled out, Ginny rose with the rest of her classmates and gathered the necessary ingredients for making a Polyjuice base. As she had all year, she was working with Colin and both diligently prepared the ingredients.

Nose twitching slightly, Ginny couldn't help it that making potions reminded her of watching her mother cook back at The Burrow. In fact, she was so involved in her little daydream about sitting back at home that, thirty minutes later as Colin was preparing to add the dead lacewings, Ginny did something she would never have done under normal circumstances...

"Ginny!" Colin's disgusted voice was drowned out by Professor Snape's disbelieving bellow of, "Miss Weasley! What are you doing!"

Ginny turned to look at Colin and Professor Snape, her expression filled with confusion at their shouts.

"Miss Weasley, while I am well aware that potions is like cooking..." Professor Snape stalked over from his desk and pulled the stirring spoon from Ginny's mouth. "Would you i please /i refrain from eating the leeches?"

Judging from the look of horror that quickly grew on Ginny's face, she really hadn't noticed what she had done. With very little prompting after having her actions pointed out to her, Ginny almost instantly threw up the contents of her stomach onto the front of Snape's robes.

Professor Snape stood, his blank expression marred by the twitching of a muscle in his cheek. "Mr Creevey, please escort Miss Weasley to the Hospital Wing... NOW!"

Colin snatched Ginny's hand and dragged her from the classroom before Snape could remember to deduct points or issue detentions. The rest of the class wasn't as lucky.

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While George and Fred were learning the dangers of the Divinations classroom and Ginny learned that potions really shouldn't be compared to cooking_during_ class; Harry, Ron, Hermione and Draco were learning yet another lesson that would need to be passed on to the other altered students. That lesson was something they really should have seen coming a mile away, but for some reason they all had overlooked that minor detail of Hogwarts... They had forgotten that Hagrid had a strange obsession with curious creatures and that they were now classified as curious creatures!

"Come on, Harry! I've been wanting a pegasus since the Tournament last year! I know you could call some over here if you tried hard enough!"

Harry had actually resorted to running around the clearing during class to fend off the overzealous Care of Magical Creatures Professor. Hermione had been chased up a tree earlier in class and was snarling at anyone that came within twenty feet of her retreat. Ron had managed to takeoff when Hagrid had turned his attentions toward the now identified eagle of the group and Draco was whining as he hid behind the other fifth year Slytherins, his tail tucked between his legs. Their classmates were no help at all as they were too busy laughing over the situation to assist.

"Even if I could call them, Hagrid... I don't think any are close enough to hear, or you'd have found them by now!" Harry was torn between wanting to follor Ron's example and not wanting to hurt his friend's feelings.

Hagrid paused. "Well I know then! Why don't you come to all my classes tomorrow! I'll write you a note! You can be the Pegasus example for the students!"

"Argh! I have enough people staring at me already, Hagrid!" Then, seeing Hagrid's face fall, Harry started to feel guilty. "Well... Maybe next time you teach the first years?" His offer was made in a tiny voice as if afraid of Hagrid's reaction... And with good reason!

"That'll be wonderful!" Hagrid immediately targetted Harry for a bonecrushing hug and Harry's screams could be heard for quite a while as he discovered just how fast he could run, fleeing further into the Forest between the trees with Hagrid right on his hooves!

Once Hagrid was gone, the Slytherins waited perhaps two whole minutes before deciding that the lesson was over and heading back to the castle. It took the Gryffindors another fifteen minutes to come to the same conclusion. Draco had remained behind before reluctantly giving in to his pack instincts and helping what his senses told him was the pack's Alpha Female out of the tree. His reward was being sent to the hospital wing with a bruised tail before Hermione controlled herself.

As it was, Hagrid eventually caught Harry and gave him a bonecrushing hug which almost literally crushed Harry's wings. He ended up being several hours late back to the castle, barely catching the end of dinner where Ron and Hermione were waiting.

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No one was very surprised when some men from St Mungo's came later that night to take away Professor Trelawny for a much needed vacation in a padded room as she raved about The Grim taking students right from beneath her ever watchful eye...

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**A/N:** Eh, this one had a rather weak ending, but in all it amused me. I hope everyone is still enjoying the tale. Let me know! Oh yeah, don't for a minute think I'm going to attempt Hagrid's accent when typing. Enough people botch it as it is! The next one will be out within the next couple of days. I spent most of the last week offline thanks to phone line troubles and dialup, so I spent quite a bit of time writing. 


	9. A Cure Is Brewed

Several days later, the group of animalistic students found themselves with a lot of free time on their hands. They had been flat out refused in their Defense Against the Dark Arts classes, Divination was out with Professor Trelawny taking her 'vacation' and Snape had forbidden half of them from coming to Potions after similar incidents as Ginny's reaction. McGonagall now only allowed them inside the Transfiguration classroom if they weren't working with small animals and all seven of them had taken to avoiding Care of Magical Creatures for their own safety.

At the moment, during the last class period of the day, Hermione, Draco and Ron were in Potions thanks to their strong constitutions. Harry had been affected by the potion fumes much as the twins had in Divination and was in the Gryffindor Common Room and was currently playing chess with Ginny who would have had DADA just then. The twins were currently banned from class as McGonagall's lesson plan would have had them turning handkerchiefs into ferrets. With nothing better to do, George and Fred were down in the kitchens setting up some prank or another...

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Draco and Hermione, being the top Potions students in their year, were helping Professor Snape work on an antidote while Ron was given the task that usually fell on Hermione during class: preventing Neville from blowing up or melting his cauldron. Sometime since the incident where Draco had 'coaxed' Hermione out of the tree and she had managed to bite his tail they had come to an understanding of sorts. The two were working in the perfect coordination that came with having a partner of similar skill level as they chopped, shredded, crushed and stewed things at the command of their Potions Professor.

Since the bite, Hermione had been observing Draco's behavior with interest. At least when she wasn't overcome with territorial or otherwise aggressive behavior, that is... She had discovered early on that his pack instincts viewed her as an Alpha in the oddly matched pack and, since his scathing remarks about Ron as they worked, she was trying to figure out who he viewed as the Alpha Male.

"It's really no surprise that the Winged Weasel managed to stay in the class. The way he eats you could probably stick him in a garbage can and he'd eat it all before bothering to find his way out..."

Hermione made a face at that comment, but since Professor Snape didn't correct Draco, she knew it would be pointless to say anything. Alpha Female or not, Snape would get Draco out of trouble.

"Not surprised that Potty couldn't take it, though. Living up to his name by having to run to the loo when all we were brewing was a simple Pepper-Up potion..."

Interesting. Didn't seem that Harry was the Alpha, though it was hard to tell. For all she knew, Draco still mouthed off about her when she wasn't around. It was nice that he couldn't seem to call her foul names to her face anymore, at least. Hermione had been amused much in the last few days seeing how he cringed when she turned her temper on him, poor wolf... A snort of amusement from Professor Snape brought her attention back to Draco's rambling.

"... going to be crushed in Quidditch this season. Those wings of his do nothing for speed. Potty won't have a chance at catching the snitch. He'll be crying for his da... Yeeeep!"

Draco's startled yelp caused heads to turn. Hermione had smacked the backs of his legs with her tail just hard enough to get his attention before narrowing her amber eyes and growling at him. It was almost comical the way just a growl from her made Draco visibly shrank down, wolfish ears flattened to his skull and silver eyes worried, as he attempted to avoid her wrath. Professor Snape actually cringed when an audible whine came from the throat of the Malfoy heir.

"Miss Granger, if you cannot work peacefully with others, perhaps you should take a leave of absence from this class." Snape's silky tones broke the silence and reminded the other students to get back to their work. Just in time as well as Ron almost missed a mistake Neville would have made in their potion.

Thanking the daily lessons with Remus, which involved quite a bit of meditation and other calming techniques, Hermione managed to refrain from leaping over the table and ripping Snape's throat out. After all, she was certain that handing your Professor their throat on a platter was a sure way to fail class...

For his part, Draco seemed torn between wanting to continue his derogatory rant and not wanting to piss off one of his pack leaders. He finally settled for sneering in Ron's direction and settled down to continue the class in silence.

Half an hour later, when class was finally over, Snape called Draco, Hermione and Ron up to his desk. "The cure should be finished soon. Bring the others here after dinner tonight." With that, Snape swooped out of the room.

Ron clucked softly. "Are you sure he didn't get any potion on him? Seems like more of a bat these days than he used to be..."

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"Being able to wear shoes again will be nice. I'm always slipping on the stone floors when I'm in a hurry." Harry munched on a tart apple the twins had liberated from the kitchens for him. He was staring at Draco whom, for some reason or another, had allowed himself to be abducted into the Gryffindor Common Room when Hermione and Ron had returned from potions with the news.

"I dunno, mate. I'm personally going to miss the tail." George seemed to have developed a strange fascination with fixing hair and was currently attempting to do something with Hermione's wild mane. Hermione was purring at the attention, her eyes half-lidded with feline pleasure as George's fingers worked through her unruly locks.

Draco was being abnormally submissive at the moment, sitting calmly on the floor where Hermione had rather loudly told him to 'Sit!' and 'Stay!' His thoughts ran along the lines of homicide for being treated as a common lapdog and berating himself for apparently not even registering as a pack leader to his own mind. Stupid pack mentality had him taking orders from the mudblood... And worst of all, he couldn't even call her that anymore!

Ron leaned against the wall, watching with amusement as the younger Gryffindors seemed to be in a state of mild shock over there being a Slytherin in the common room. Though he himself had been shocked when Hermione had grabbed Draco as they left class. He reminded himself to never let Draco forget about how she had literally dragged him across the castle and into the Gryffindor Common Room. "I was personally hoping we could have used this as a chance to see if we could hang out with Moony on the full moon."

Harry, Fred and Ginny looked thoughtful at that suggestion. Hermione stopped purring long enough to send a curious look Ron's way as George paused in his hair stylist pursuit. Draco snorted something about ruddy brainless Gryffindors trying to get themselves killed.

"I think I'm going to miss being buff." That was, surprisingly enough, Hermione. She flexed an arm, the material of her blouse straining against the enhanced musculature she had acquired with her transformation. "It was rather fun showing Crabbe and Goyle that making fun of me with my new body isn't a good idea."

The guys, being what they were, took her comment as an open invitation to give Hermione a once over. She looked rather like an amazon with her muscles and extra wild hair. Fred even went so far as to ask her if she would model a leather bikini for them and got a pillow in the face for his suggestion.

"Are you guys coming down? It's dinner time!" That was Neville, racing through the common room and out the portrait door.

The magic words when dealing with teenage boys and especially Weasleys are 'dinner time.' In less than ten seconds Fred, George and Ron were racing out after Neville with the rest soon following.

Hermione, still dragging Draco around by his tie, reached the Grand Staircase just in time to see Ron do a nosedive off the banister. "Ron!" She screeched in shock, rushing over and watching the others as Ron angled between the moving stairs like an oversized owl and flick his wings in time to vanish down the right corridor to get to the Great Hall.

"Bloody brilliant!" That was one of the twins, right before hehanded Harry a galleon.

"Told you he'd do it." Harry smugly pocketed the galleon and hoisted himself up and over the rail, following Ron's erratic flight path.

Draco shook his head, muttering about suicidal Gryffindors only to be cut off as Hermione tugged his tie, continuing down to dinner.

"C'mon, Wolfboy. Time you learned what goes on at the Gryffindor table during dinner."

Draco whined. "Kill me now..."

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Hermione's reason for keeping Draco so close to the group turned out to be rather simple. She didn't want him sneaking off early to Snape. Knowing Malfoy, he'd take the cure then manage to destroy the rest of it before they arrived. All in all, once the initial shock wore off that Hermione was still forcing Draco into the presence of Gryffindors, the pleasant chatter common to Gryffindor table had continued. Draco had even managed to get involved in a debate with Ron about Quidditch.

Once dinner ended, Hermione primly led the odd pack toward the dungeons with Ginny whispering at her side. Despite the whispers, everyone in the pack could hear the conversation. After all, they didn't suffer with enhanced senses without getting a few perks. Ginny's whispering turned out to be for the benefit of the Slytherins they passed on their way to the Potions class however as all she talked about were things the others already knew.

"About time you got here." Snape's tone was probably more displeased with their presence than usual.

Professor Snape stood near a medium sized cauldron at the other side of the class next to Madam Pomfrey. The two had worked together on the cure which Pomfrey fussed should be properly tested. Snape had argued that the students already transformed were the only safe ones on which to test the potion without turning more of the student body into half-breeds. Eventually, Snape's argument had won.

"Gather round, we don't want anyone missing out do we?" Snape was carefully pouring measured doses of the cure into small tin cups. "I'm sure none of you mind taking it down here instead of up in the hospital wing. After all, the cure needs to be fresh from the cauldron." He gestured to the cups. "Now drink it down quickly."

Snatching up the cups, the half-breed students all made the predictable disgusted faces at the potion's smell. Draco downed his first, not believing for a moment that his beloved godfather would poison him and, since they had seen Snape pour from the same ladle, the others followed. Although a bit more reluctantly.

The tin cups hit the floor as all seven students gagged from the taste. Muttered comments of 'vile,' 'nasty' and 'had to be poisoned' could be heard. Then it was felt. Their bodies tingled and seemed to ripple as though in the heat and the feeling was just creepy as the sense of touch heightened twenty fold.

It was on Draco that it was first noticed. The thick silvery white fur covering him seemed to become shorter and his muzzle less noticeable. Snape's pleased smirk and Pomfrey's relieved look made them feel better even as tails and wings seemed to shrink... Then, it happened.

"Aaawoooooooo!"

Eight pairs of eyes flew to Draco as he indulged in a howl... A howl which turned into a half scream, half snarl as things went terribly wrong. Within moments, the time it had taken for the others to follow Draco's example and take the potion as well, the others followed. The shriek of an eagle pierced the dungeon, easily heard over three feline roars. The high pitched, frightened neigh of a pegasus drowned out the startled squeaks and chattering of an otter.

Backing swiftly away from the students, Snape and Pomfrey watched in horror as the potion, which had seemed to be working, did a swift about face and soon the class wasn't filled with teenagers, or half-breeds... Where they had stood were perfect examples of normal animals.

A tawny cougar was squaring off against twin tigers, seeming on the verge of breaking loose the Gates of Hell in a horrid battle while a golden red eagle circled overhead as though looking for a place to land. A reddish brown otter chattered fearfully behind a black and silver pegasus that looked on the verge of panic at being stuck on the ground near predators. Even the Arctic wolf had better sense with the larger, stronger carnivores nearby, having slinked over to Snape's desk and hidden beneath it.

Pulling their wands out even as the Hermione-cougar dove at one of the twins, Pomfrey and Snape started hurling Stupefy spells at the seven animals in the class.

"I _told_ you we should have tested it first!"

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**A/N:** Thank you to all my reviewers! I swear getting reviews is the best part of writing. I think I have some sort of reaction kink because I get more delight seeing how others react than I do from reading or watching things myself... Anyway, I hope you like the twist of the botched cure. It adds a new element to the story. And don't worry, the tie-in with the Prologue is coming up soon! 


	10. Aftershocks

"Hey, you... Weaselette. Wake up!"

Ginny groaned, stretching her body as the soft, though insistent, voice penetrated her sleep cycle. She yawned, rolling over onto her back before blinking open soft brown eyes and coming face to face with a white wolf. "Squeak!" She tumbled off the bed she had been sleeping in and picked herself up onto all fours before giving the wolf a slightly timid glare. "What happened to you?"

The wolf shrugged slightly, the gesture odd on his body. "Same thing that happened to all of us. Snape's cure."

His mouth didn't move in words, but a series of soft growls and wuffs when he spoke overlapped with Draco's voice. Ginny found that just a bit strange. "So... Why did you wake me up?"

"I'm lonely and your Gryffindork friends are insane." The wolf turned to narrow his silver eyes at the others.

Following his gaze, Ginny felt her eyes widen even as she jumped back up onto the hospital bed. She didn't seem aware that she was currently in a rather small otter body as she watched the scene.

A tiger twin, Ginny couldn't tell which one, had a cougar pinned down beneath his larger frame. His head was thrown back and there was an odd, evil laugh coming from the tiger even as the cougar snarled vicious curses at him. The cougar's voice, which sounded just like Hermione, overlapped the feline snarl giving the scene an odd effect. Though as Ginny twitched her little ears, she could hear Fred's laugh coming from over the tiger's chuff sounds. That wasn't even the strangest part... A stunning black pegasus was standing over the felines, the light glinting off silver markings and snorting with a cross between irritation and amusement. The voice from the pegasus was unmistakably Harry's and he was trying to calm Hermione down. Apparently she had attacked the twins again and she was being pinned down for their safety.

Giving a shake of her head, Ginny turned to see where a couple of hospital beds had been turned over as another tiger, this one George, ran in circles. He wasn't speaking, but seemed to be enjoying chasing his own tail at a very dangerous speed. Perched on a privacy screen, a regal reddish gold eagle was squawking and making strange click-chirp sounds over which she heard Ron's voice encouraging George to go faster! From the looks of that scene, they were seeing how long it would take until George keeled over or puked.

Ginny blinked once before turning to look at the wolf that spoke with Draco's voice. "You're right. They are insane." She calmly agreed.

The silvery white wolf rolled his eyes. "Just so you know, you squeak and chatter like a squirrel when you talk." Draco jumped up onto the bed and sat next to Ginny.

Scooting over a bit so that the larger wolf could have more room, Ginny nodded her head in agreement. "It's really strange how we seem to have two voices... Have any of the professors come in yet?"

"No, but the doors are closed and none of us can open them as we are." Draco looked at Ginny's little otter paws. "You might be able to open the door, but there was a note asking us to wait here."

As Ginny pondered over the pack mentality that caused Draco to be nicer than usual, she found herself in the awkward situation of scratching her ear... With her foot. She covered her eyes with her paws when she realized what she was doing.

Draco smirked, it somehow wasn't surprising that even as a big white wolf he could still smirk... "Don't worry. We've all already done things like that. And yes, the only reason I'm being nice is because for some reason you Gryffindors are my pack..." He growled at the admission.

As Ginny was thinking of a reply to that, the door opened and in walked Professor Dumbledore, Professor Snape, Professor McGonagall and Madam Pomfrey. The professors paused to take in the interesting scene before closing the door and blocking off the view of some curious students.

Dumbledore, his eyes twinkling and a smile in place, cleared his throat to get their attention. "Well, it seems we've had a bit of a set back in the curing process..."

"Gee, well isn't that an understatement of the obvious." The annoyed voice of Hermione Granger snarled across the room.

Eyes now twinkling madly, Dumbledore's smile grew. "Did we disturb you and Mr Weasley at a bad time, Miss Granger? I'm afraid in your present forms that pose does appear rather compromising..."

A mortified screech from a cougar and an amused sounding yowl from the tiger sounded as Hermione and Fred jumped away from each other. If her face hadn't been covered in tawny golden brown fur and his with orange, white and black fur, their flaming blushes would have cracked everyone up. As it was, the horror stricken look of mortification on the face of a cougar and the embarrassed look of amusement on a tiger face were enough to cause more than a few snorts of stifled mirth. Even from Professor Snape!

Clearing his throat, eyes still possessing that insane amount of twinkling that he gets when terribly amused, Dumbledore seated himself on one of the beds. "Now, as I have just learned, it would seem that you are still able to communicate. A sort of limited telepathic ability, it appears." Dumbledore nodded, reaching into his pocket and fishing out a sherbert lemon for himself. "It doesn't seem to be a mind reading ability, just allows you to project your thoughts through normal animal communication when you wish to be heard."

Harry flicked his long tail, looking rather nervous. "That's... Er, nice, Professor... But is there any way to get us back? At least the half-breed forms were more useful than being stuck as animals..."

"Yes, it must be dreadfully distressing. Which is why I have brought Minerva and..." Professor Dumbledore looked around as if someone were missing. "Oh dear, where did he get off to..." He stood and went back to the door. Opening it, which caused curious students to scatter, Dumbledore whistled. After a moment, a large black dog bounded into the room.

"Now, as I was saying... That is why I have brought Minerva and... Snuffles here. They will be assisting you. I am hoping that since you are now possessed of full animal bodies that you can escape them the same way that an animagus resumes his or her human form." Smiling, Dumbledore headed for the door once more. "I'm sure you won't mind sharing the control lessons with Remus in this way..." And with that, Dumbledore was gone.

Snape, who had been consulting with Madam Pomfrey, now stepped forward. "I need to get several samples from each of you before you head out to your lesson. We have to work something up in case your new animagi lessons don't help." Annoyed at the students, as if it were their faults that the cure hadn't worked, he patiently took them each aside to take several fur samples as well as claw clippings and a bit of saliva. Once he was done, Snape swooped out of the hospital wing to begin testing.

"You know..." The familiar voice of Ron was thoughtful. "If I didn't know any better, I'd say he was enjoying the challenge of finding a cure for us..."

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Somewhere along the line, between the first accident and waking up in the bodies of full animals, the twins had decided that keeping Hermione in check was their responsibility. This could, perhaps, have been because they were the only two who had been given a species and size that could outmatch the intelligent young woman. Or perhaps it was just because all three of them had somehow been gifted with feline mutations. In any event, when the newly dubbed Animalities walked along behind McGonagall and Snuffles through the castle and toward the clearing where they met with Remus Lupin, Hermione could be found flanked on either side by a large tiger.

The whole scene was enough to draw an audience as Minerva McGonagall, prim as ever, lead the way with a bear-like black dog beside her. The dog's presence made some of the more gullible Hufflepuffs watching shriek in fear of The Grim and only helped with the rumors flying around of Trelawny's absence.

Following the dog and Professor was a majestic pegasus stallion. The pegasus was mostly a deep black with cloven silver hooves. His mane and tail were a salt and pepper mix of black and silver and a silver lightning bolt blaze shimmered on his forehead. His silver feathers on his great wings were edged with black, softening the glimmer of reflected light on the pure silvery mass. The pegasus had bright emerald eyes that seemed to glow even when he walked through a shadow.

Sitting casually upon the back of the pegasus, holding locks of his almost shaggy mane in her delicate paws, a cute auburn colored otter could be found. When the pegasus walked through the light it would catch in her auburn fur and seem to burn like a smoldering flame. She had soft brown eyes that sparkled with amusement and was chirping and squeaking softly to the pegasus. Every now and then, the pegasus would nod or whicker softly at whatever the otter was saying.

Next came an equally entrancing sight. A sleek white wolf with the bearing of royalty walked gracefully in the wake of the pegasus and otter. He was large, though not as large as the black dog and his pure white fur shimmered silvery in the shadow while being blindingly bright in the light. His silver eyes held a calculating look as he paused a moment, eying some watching Slytherins in passing and causing them to take a step back just by his presence and bearing. The wolf smirked to himself before continuing after the others.

While the wolf drew the eye with his pure silvery appeal, his 'walking' partner attracted as many looks for his golden appearance. Gliding slowly, seeming to be pacing himself with the wolf, turning his wings to circle over head from time to time, a large red-gold eagle flew. If he were a lion, he would be in perfect Gryffindor spirit. As he glided with the silvery wolf in the shadows, he seemed more red, the shadows allowing his wickedly curving talons and sharp beak to be more easily seen. And then he would hit the light. When passing through the light, the gold highlights on his plummage sparkled incandescently. The burnished gold shimmer never failed to draw the eyes of both the wolf and the pegasus ahead as if they were trained to seek out such golden sparkles.

Bringing up the rear was undoubtedly the most dangerous part of the group; the three massive felines. Two tigers, identical almost to the last stripe, walked with sinewy grace. Muscles rippled beneath the orange, black and white fur that shimmered with good health. As one of the tigers yawned, displaying the long, sharp teeth, some of the students that had stopped to watch the procession marveled at how the smaller animals in front refrained from fleeing. Both tigers seemed bored, their golden eyes half-lidded as they tried to keep themselves awake while walking.

Nearly hidden between the larger bodies of the twin tigers, the sleeker and more agile cougar didn't glimmer quite as much as the other animals. While her golden brown fur was still slightly glossy, it had a tawny, almost fluffy appearance that, while softer than the others', wasn't as shiny. The tips of her ears and tail were a darker, almost chocolate brown in color. Like the tigers, her coat rippled with every movement as the sleek, solid muscles slid with unconscious fluidity with every movement. Her amber eyes sparkled with intelligence and quite a bit of barely restrained fury... Fury that was quite possibly a result of being escorted between the two larger felines. While not as large as the tigers, her smaller build made her much more dangerous as she was more agile and able to fit in smaller places than the larger cats.

As the strange procession made it's way out of the castle, students lining the hallways to watch curiously, one of the tigers paused mid-step. Turning his golden eyes to a small group of first year Ravenclaws, the tiger's eyes seemed to sparkle with something a moment before he pounced! Two loud roars and several terrified screams later, the tiger was lying on his back while the cougar snarled at it as if scolding while the first years ran for the far reaches of the castle.

McGonagall's irritated shout came from further down the hall. "Mr Weasley! Would you kindly control yourself and come along!"

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"So let me get this straight... Snape's cure, made it worse... And now you're going to try animagi lessons to see if you can turn human again?" Remus stood, his curious gaze turning from one animal to another.

Draco had been sworn to complete secrecy, his pack's Alpha Female demanding compliance while the two that confused him for Alpha Male position stood on either side of him. He had been shocked but, just knowing what The Golden Trio really did on their secret missions made him feel a bit better about being around them. The particular secret he had been sworn to: his cousin Sirius Black.

Sirius was in his human form, sprawled out between Harry and Remus while they all watched McGonagall change from her tabby cat to her human body. After changing, she turned on her best teacher mode and started telling them the process. Occasionally Sirius would phrase something differently so that the students that didn't have Professor level IQ's could follow the lecture.

As the lecture grew longer, only Remus, Draco and Hermione seemed to be paying attention. Ron was using a talon to scratch an elaborate tic-tac-toe game in the dirt that both Ginny and Sirius were playing with him. George had fallen asleep behind Sirius who was absentmindedly using the tiger as a pillow while playing the game. Harry was preening his feathers while watching Fred out of the corner of his eye. Fred was apparently working on a dance routine that he had seen some white tigers doing for some 'magic' show on the telly last summer. All in all, everyone seemed to be as normal as they could be all things considered.

Until...

"Oh my God! I just realized that all your robes fell off down in the dungeons when you changed! If you transform now you'll be naked!" Sirius exclaimed loudly!

At the near-shout, everyone's attention jerked toward Sirius, eyes wide with either shock, horror, amusement or irritation.

"How does that work, anyway?" Hermione's rumbly growl was drowned out by her sending. "I remember the Shrieking Shack... Were Pettigrew's clothes melted into his skin for twelve years as he hid as Scabbers? But then when he transformed to escape, he left his clothes lying there on the ground. So did his clothes vanish and he regained new ones when he transformed or what? Are we truly nude right now? I've seen you change to Snuffles and back, and McGonagall to her cat form and back... What happens to the clothing?"

No one seemed to understand much of what Hermione was asking, she tended to think fast when trying to work something out, and that didn't mix well at all with their new way of speaking. One thing hit their brains clearly and that was three little words: Nude. Right. Now.

Like switches being flicked, the light-bulbs in their brains turned on. The animal sides of their minds had overridden their human side on most things and they hadn't really noticed. But now that it had been pointed out for them...

"Eeeeek!" Ginny shrieked and dove over, hiding her smaller form as best she could behind McGonagall's robes.

Ron and Harry seemed to be doing their best to cover themselves with their wings.

George continued to sleep, blissfully unaware of things.

Draco seemed to be doing the equivalent of a wolfish blush and had curled up, his fluffy tail covering his face from view.

Hermione was startled out of her train of thought at the shrieking otter and stared at Ginny with surprise.

Remus had covered his face and was trying not to laugh out loud.

Sirius didn't even try to contain himself and laughed loud enough to cause George to stir from sleep.

A muscle near McGonagall's eye started twitching...

"We're naked! Wicked!" Fred stopped his dancing long enough to actually admire himself. He posed, the epitome of feline power and grace. "So... How can you tell if you have an impressi.."

Whatever Fred had been about to ask was cut off by a rather urgent whicker from Harry and everyone looked at the uncomfortably squirming pegasus. "Er... This might be a bad time... But... How are we supposed to use the lavatories?"

There was a scattering of snickers and concerned looks at the reminder. The twitch in the eye muscle increased and suddenly, Minerva McGonagall decided there were some things she just wasn't cut out to teach.

"That's it. I quit!" And Professor McGonagall walked primly back to the castle.

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A/N: I don't know how many pay attention to my user page and see that I post information on current projects there, but I had commented I was going to take a break before starting this chapter. Well, about twenty minutes after deciding I needed a break, this came to mind and most of it was written an hour later. Hopefully the rest of the story comes to mind as easily. Once again, thank you to all my reviewers and I hope you continue to enjoy the story! 


	11. From Smells To Spells

"This is so embarrassing..." Harry's thought was shadowed with waves of mortification. Ron, Draco, Ginny and Hermione all agreed one hundred percent, though the twins didn't seem to care one way or the other.

It had been perhaps a week since they had awoken to find themselves stuck in the bodies of fully formed animals. The animagus lessons hadn't been any help as of yet, though the self-control lessons with Remus had continued to help. These lessons were now daily and took up most of the day as they could no longer take any of their classes. While Ginny's paws were still agile enough to hold a quill and, rather sloppily, write her essays, she was not being required to continue working while the others did nothing.

In the week since the attempt at a cure, no one had seen much of Professor Snape. He rarely even showed up for lessons, piling tons of written work, reading and essays on his students before storming back into his private lab. He was taking their regression into full animals rather personally and was working almost non-stop with the samples as he worked on a new cure.

The first few days had been fun as they learned that the castle's wards now registered them as familiars. Having the entire castle open to their wandering whims had been entertaining and Fred and George had been threatened with expulsion if they were caught in any of the girls' dorms one more time. Hermione and Ginny had been wandering in the Library's restricted section almost every night, the cougar's night vision and the otter's paws allowing them to search out a variety of topics without being caught.

Ron had been following in his older brother's footprints, though not literally. He turned out to be a lot sneakier than the twins and flew around the castle towers, his extremely sharp eagle vision allowing him to see all sorts of things he would normally get in trouble for seeing. Harry couldn't join in such antics as he was too obvious and amused himself racing through the halls and driving Filch up the wall.

Draco seemed to find these Gryffindor antics beneath his dignity and refused to partake in any spying. Of course, knowing Malfoy, he probably got to wander into the Slytherin girls' dorm any time he wanted, regardless of form. About the only thing he seemed to do was lurk beneath the tables in the Great Hall. It was rather entertaining to watch as he alternated between using canine tactics and getting things passed from the table to his muzzle with snarling to frighten the lower years and Hufflepuffs.

After a few days, during which they had explored all the places familiars had access to, usually with Crookshanks and Hedwig acting as guides, Colin Creevey had convinced them to try on blindfolds for a day and find their ways about the castle using just their other senses. That had been great fun and had even amused Sirius enough that he had joined in the game. At one point, they had overheard him commenting to Remus about how they should have used their animagus forms like Fred and George had been back when they were in school. Remus had responded by whacking Sirius upside the head with a rolled up copy of the Daily Prophet.

Then, of course, they became rather bored. They didn't realize how dreadfully boring the castle was when all the other students were in class and they couldn't use their wands. After lounging around the common rooms for a day or two, taking breaks only for necessary trips down to the Great Hall or kitchens for meals, or outside for other things... The next issue to be dealt with arrived.

"Under normal circumstances this wouldn't be an issue.. But you've all been running in and out of the castle as you please for five days and it must be taken care of." Professor McGonagall had managed to corner the entire group in the Entrance Hall. "But seeing as you can't seem to tend to this yourselves, I have recruited assistants..."

Waving her hand to draw their attention, the seven Animalities looked around. They were surrounded! Every first year in the school, regardless of house, was wearing their sturdiest Herbology gear and a determined look was on each face. Looking vaguely alarmed, the seven older students backed closer together and Ron tried to take off from his perch on Harry's back. A flick of McGonagall's wand and both Ron and Harry were essentially rendered flightless.

"I'm sorry, Mr Weasley... But there will be no escape. For any of you." Another gesture and Lee Jordan, Angelina Johnson, Alicia Spinnet and Katie Bell arrived. "They will be supervising and have orders to make sure the first years carry out their task, at any cost..." A sympathetic look crossed her stern features for a moment. "I know this will be embarrassing, but you seven are starting to stink up the common rooms." With that last comment causing the first years and supervisors to giggle and snicker, McGonagall swept back to her office.

"You heard Professor McGonagall... Come along then." Angelina giggled, pointing her wand in a threatening manner at the animals and gesturing for them to head outside.

The seven were led, at wand-point, outside where Remus and Sirius were filling up two large, shallow tubs with sudsy water. It seemed the two Marauders found the situation as amusing as everyone else, seeing as they were laughing openly.

"Now... Who's first?"

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Several hours later, the cleaner and definitely much nicer smelling Animalities were once more listening to Sirius as he went on about past exploits. He was supposed to be going over the Animagus transformation, but tended to easily wander off topic. Remus didn't bother trying to bring Sirius back on track as he did throw in comments about the transformation from time to time. At the moment, Sirius was telling them about when they were first learning to transform and forgot their clothes half the time in the process.

"That can't be nearly as bad as being felt up by a bunch of first years." Harry shuddered with the comment. Though he knew it had been necessary, it still felt funky to be given a bath like a house pet. He, like all the others, was now wearing an over sized cloak. Remus had taken to putting the cloaks on each of them at the beginning of each lesson, just in case they managed to turn into a nude human...

Ron made a funny sound that was the avian equivalent of a snort. "At least you've got some fur. Do you have any idea how violated I felt with them trying to get all my feathers clean?" He was mortally offended by the whole deal.

"At least we were lucky it was first years... It would have been more embarrassing to have the older students feeling us up..." Leave it to Fred and George to point out that things could have been worse. "Just think of what might have happened if Angelina had been the one with her hands all over you, Ronnikins."

With a strangled squawk, Ron buried his head under a glossy red-gold wing.

Sirius had paused his story when they started talking about the bath again. "You know, as fun as it was watching you try to melt your fur and feathers with blushes... You really do need to concentrate and see if you can make yourselves take on your human forms again. Unless you really want to be bathed by the first years again in a few days..."

As he had hoped, all of them turned their minds once more on concentrating... At least for a minute they did. Not long after the actual lesson started, a small sound that they couldn't really describe drew their attention.

"It worked!" Ginny was bouncing in place, the cloak drawn tightly around her. She wasn't a human, though. Standing where the otter had been moments before was the half-breed they had grown used to. She still had the super short auburn fur covering her and paws for feet. Not to mention the stubby claws and thick tail, but at least she wasn't a full animal anymore. "We were trying to get back to our human forms. We forgot that we weren't humans when the full animal forms were forced upon us!" She squeaked with excitement over being the first one to get it right.

"Congratulations Ginny!" Remus gave Ginny some chocolate. "You can go ahead and go back to the castle if you want."

"Hang on.. I want to try something first." Ginny closed her eyes, concentrating on all the information they had learned on the animagus transformation and a moment later she was once more an otter. Opening her eyes, she squeaked with delight and changed back and forth several times. Thankfully she had her cloak every time she turned back into a half-breed though it wasn't always there when she turned into the otter.

"Ginny! We would all feel a lot better if you would go put some clothes on!" Hermione's horrified voice caused Harry and Draco to snicker and Ginny's brothers to vehemently agree!

"All right... I'm going. Just don't forget to picture the cloak!" With that, Ginny turned into an otter and scampered swiftly back up to the castle. After all, running as an otter was safer than running in just a cloak.

"Now that we know what was wrong, get cracking." Sirius made a chopping motion and the others tried to remember how they had looked in their half-breed forms.

Three hours later the last of the Animalities made his way back up to the castle to put some clothes on and head to bed. It had taken so long because once George had figured out his form and returned, they had discovered that the seemingly identical twins had more than their scent to separate them and Fred had taken the longest of all to figure out just how he was different.

All in all, it was a rather good day.

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Several days later, during Transfiguration class, Harry, Ron and Hermione were whispering softly while turning their tea cups into lanterns. Their matter was on the increasingly distant behavior of the twins.

"I don't care, as long as they aren't turning my things into spiders, they can do whatever they want."

"It just seems odd that they've been so close since the first accident and now don't want anything to do with us."

"They're probably just planning a prank now that we're getting back into the swing of things."

"Yeah, now that they can sneak into the other Houses and up into the girls' dorms, there's a whole new area of Hogwarts they haven't been able to prank yet."

"Still, it is strange that they would be keeping so distant."

"Did you ever stop to think that they're keeping distant because you and Ron are prefects and they don't want you turning them in for what they're planning?"

Both Ron and Hermione looked offended at that suggestion and the conversation died as Hermione successfully transfigured a rather intricately designed lantern. It wasn't until they were leaving class that she even remembered her earlier suspicions that the twins were up to no good.

"Umm... Harry... Ron... What class did the twins have while we were in Transfiguration?"

"I think they were supposed to be in Divination, why?"

But Hermione never answered, freezing as she stepped out of the classroom and her senses went on full alert. Without even thinking of trying to say anything, she dropped her bag and tore off at top speed.

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(Here's where you might want to go back and reread the Prologue if you don't remember how it went. The next part of this chapter takes up where the Prologue left off.)

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Fred and George screeched to a halt at the end of the corridor. They had finally noticed that they had lost Hermione's scent. A quick gesture and they turned, backtracking and sniffing like bloodhounds on the hunt. They couldn't let her escape. After all the times she had viciously attacked them since the situation started, they were finally going to get her back. Sure their plan was rather childish, but it was all they could bring themselves to do to the cougar.

George waved, pointing toward the door to the bathroom where the entire fiasco had started and nodded his head. Fred quickly crossed the empty corridor and tested the door only to find it latched. He rolled his eyes, like that would work, they were wizards after all. A flick of his wand and the door creaked open. Gesturing for George to guard the door, Fred slipped inside.

"We know you're in here, Hermione..." Fred called in a singsong tone as he crept into the girls' bathroom. He crouched slightly, pushing open the stalls as he went along. "You're not going to escape us... We're going to get you and once we do... You're ours."

Jumping slightly at Fred's phrasing, George's attention wandered for an instant and, in that instant, Hermione made her move.

She had been in full cougar form, body pressed against the wall as she clung to the little ledge above the door itself. Watching Fred and George from her vantage point, she took George's moment of inattention as her only chance to escape. Diving off the ledge, she twisted in midair and sprang at the startled George. Hermione actually managed to get past him and, mid-stride she shifted back to half-breed form to continue her escape.

What Hermione hadn't counted on was George's reaction time and before she had gone more than two steps in her half-breed form she found herself plastered to the floor with a much larger and heavier tiger on her back. She twisted and snarled, trying to escape.

"Got her, Fred! She sure is a tricky little minx." George lowered his voice as Fred reassured Myrtle that everything was fine and whispered in Hermione's ear. "Stop squirming like that, would you?"

Something in his tone caused Hermione to freeze and she looked over her shoulder as Fred came out to join them. Whatever she had been about to say abruptly changed. "You do know that you aren't going to get away with this, right?"

"We'll see about that, Granger." Fred cheerfully informed her as he took her arms. George stood, grabbing hold of her legs as he did and the twins carried her securely out of the castle. "This is your punishment for all of your attacks we've been forced to foil."

Ignoring Hermione's curses and efforts to escape, and the crowd their passage drew, the twins carted Hermione over to the edge of the lake. "Now, little Miss Cougar... This will teach you to cool off instead of lashing out... One. Two. Three!"

With a loud screech and a louder splash, Hermione hit the water about fifty yards into the lake!

"Wow, Fred! We should have taken our strength into account before lobbing her in like that... Hope she didn't hurt herself." George peered out at the lake while Fred and their audience laughed.

"Nah, she's fine. See?" Fred waved to Hermione as she popped to the surface. They couldn't hear her cursing very well thanks to the distance. Fred dusted off his hands. "Now that that's taken care of, what say we go down to the kitchens for a treat?"

Out in the lake, Hermione was digging around in her sodden robes as best she could. It wasn't easy with the way they tried to float up in the water. A small poit sound nearby drew her attention and she saw her wand bob to the surface. An evil grin formed on her face as she snatched it into her hand.

Two shouted curses and two brightly colored streaks of light later and she swam to shore and marched smugly back to Gryffindor Tower while the audience now got its' laughs from the twins. For the next eight hours, no one had any trouble telling the twins apart.

After all, who could mistake a sheepdog style, tiger striped, shaggy furred George for his new twin _sister_ Fredina?

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**A/N: **I'd just like to note that the animals chosen for the characters are not what I personally think their animagus forms would be. It's the forms that closest fit their mental state at the time the twins' potion hit them during the accident, or at least I think so. Hermione was feeling aggressive and wanting to attack Peeves for daring to touch her potion, so she became a rather aggressive and territorial cougar. I figured the twins would be slightly aggressive and territorial as well, but with a protective and playful nature right along side that and I felt that a tiger fit it best. Ron felt the urge to take flight at being caught while also wanting to attack Draco, so he became an eagle. Harry wanted to take flight as well but also wanted to protect and defend the others, so a pegasus came to mind. Ginny was in more of a playful mindset while also feeling sneaky and a bit deceptive, so she became the otter. Draco was on edge with his feelings. He was a bit aggressive, but more defensive while trying to intimidate a group of Gryffindors that didn't have a history of being intimidated by him. He just seemed wolfish to me at the time. So their forms are not their animagus forms. The reason they're taking the animagus training is because the Professors thought that since they're in the bodies of full animals, they might be able to trick their human selves out the way animagus resume their human forms. I hope that clarifies several things people might have been wondering. And once again, thank you to all my lovely reviewers! -:-:gives them pumpkin pie and hot chocolate:-:- 


	12. Umbridge vs The Animalities

**A/N:** Someone else mentioned that they couldn't keep track of the time in the story... In all honesty, I lost track of the time as well. But that's ok! Cause it's fanfic and the time frames in fanfic never make sense. On the plus side, this chapter gives a definite frame of reference for time, just in case someone did want to keep track...

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Harry and Ron paced back and forth in the Room of Requirement, often crossing paths and, in one moment that left Ginny in giggles for ten minutes, they had collided. All of the half-breed students were present, including a disgruntled seeming Draco Malfoy. The twins had sneaked down to the dungeon and abducted him half an hour ago, blindfolding him and bringing him to the secret room. The situation was something that, even though they didn't really like Draco, their current truce required that he be allowed in on the proceedings.

"I still can't believe it. That stupid toad of a woman. What right did she have to do that to you?" That was Hermione, furious after hearing Harry and Ron's report.

According to Ron and Harry, about the time she had been swimming out of the lake the previous night, they had gone for a snack in the kitchens but had run into Umbridge instead. The foul woman had said that they didn't have any rights to exist, let alone be allowed to walk freely among the normal students and she would see about having them properly disposed of. Umbridge had left then, heading down the halls and, uneducated as she was, muttering to herself. She hadn't realized it at the time, but Harry and Ron had been able to perfectly hear her muttering and she was talking about having Dumbledore removed and herself placed as Headmistress.

"We need to do something. Too bad the Polyjuice potion was ruined." That was George, once more as normal as a tiger hybrid could be, sitting next to and staring at his twin _sister_ Fred.

He wasn't the only one, Draco was staring as well and even Harry and Ron took the occasional glance while pacing. Hermione's charm hadn't yet worn off, though she assured Fred that it should wear off soon. Fred hadn't seemed too upset about it, though he might have been a bit uncomfortable with the staring. Like a real trooper, Fred had even modified his clothes to be more effeminate that morning. According to George, Fred had closed himself in his bed last night with a privacy charm, no doubt to get in touch with his feminine side. Fred had declined to comment on the accusation.

Interrupting whatever Ginny had been about to say to George, Draco said what was on Harry's mind. "Too bad so many Weasley's are born male. They make much prettier females."

Four of the room's occupants turned a bright red as the room stilled, Fred and Ginny blushing the brightest. Though still the seven feet height he had been given with his tiger body, Fred wasn't as muscular as George. His female body was softer and had a large bust, at least that's how it looked without a bra and straining against the material of the men's shirt he was wearing. That was probably why the males in the room seemed incapable of looking away for long.

Fred flicked his long tail uncomfortably and crossed his arms over his chest. "Stop staring at my tits..."

Ginny and Hermione burst into laughter at the comment. It probably wouldn't have been as funny if the charm hadn't worn off between the words 'staring' and 'at.' The soft, effeminate curves and features melded back into the more rugged tiger that almost matched the one at his side and he grumped when the others joined in the laughter.

"Ha ha... Very amusing. Let's get back to planning this." Fred looked mad and his idea only added to the impression. "I say we make a new batch of what we were hit with and force it into the toad's mouth. She'll turn right into a real half-breed toad and show everyone what we already know."

"That's awful! No one should be forced into this situation. Not to mention that she'd be cured at the same time we would be." Hermione obviously didn't agree with the idea.

Draco, however, seemed to like it. "It's not a bad idea. The Polyjuice potion was still in the beginning stages, right?" He looked over as Ron and Harry nodded in agreement, taking seats on the comfy couches the room provided. "Though she's probably more of a slug than a toad."

"If we had a complete Polyjuice potion we could force a change on her. Turn her into whatever we want. We know she'd have to spend weeks in the hospital wing if she didn't want anyone to see." Ron glanced slyly at Hermione as he recalled the cat incident from second year.

"We'd have to wait a month for that, though. The best time to strike would be in three days, at Halloween. Dumbledore's letting us have a costume party after the feast this year. We could create a distraction there." George stood and was pacing now as he thought. "Maybe one of us could sneak off floo from Hogsmeade to Knockturn Alley and buy some Polyjuice from the apothecary there on Halloween morning..."

"No, that won't work. As much as it pains me, you could get expelled if you were caught doing that. My stupid pack instincts won't let me lose my pack-mates." They turned surprised expressions to Draco. "I can easily sneak into Professor Snape's private lab. He has some of just about every potion there. I'm sure he'll have Polyjuice."

Ginny squealed and gave Draco a big hug, much to his displeasure. "That'd be awesome!"

George nodded appreciatively, his mind working now. "Ok, we'd need a big distraction. Something that would get the toad up into a frenzy and make her rant and rave for people to be expelled." His golden eyes scanned the other hybrids. An evil grin formed on his face, made even more wicked by the elongated feline fangs in his smile. "Fred, Hermione and I will be one half of the distracting force. Ginny and Harry will be the second half. Ron and Draco will be the ones to set up the potion to make certain she's dosed."

"What! I refuse to work with the Winged Weasel!"

"No way am I working with that Ferret!"

Ron and Draco glared daggers at each other.

Fred caught on to George's idea with just the distraction pairings. "It's perfect that way, though. No one would ever suspect you two to team up for anything. You're the only two that can pull it off. Anyone else will be suspect. All you two have to do is start arguing and anyone would believe that you'd been doing nothing but that for hours." He rubbed his hands together gleefully and the planning really started.

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The next day...

"It's not very comfortable, but I can see how that would cause the other students to react... Can we modify it a bit though? Just for comfort..."

"Of course we can, Harry. And everyone will love it, trust me."

"This is going to be awkward with my tail. Can we try it again?"

Panting. "I've got the potion. We need the bits to add to it now."

"Great! We were just going to rehearse Harry and Ginny's parts again."

"You know, they seemed to have agreed to their part a bit too easily..."

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The day before Halloween...

"Are you _out_ of your mind! There's _no_ way I'm wearing that!"

"You have to wear it, Hermione! It's the best way, trust me."

"Not if I can help it. Why do I have to be saddled with you two again?"

Whispering.

"Oh... Oh my. Umm... Yes, I can see how that would stir up trouble..."

"So you'll wear it then."

"No way!"

Whining. "But, Hermione! It'll only work this way... Please?"

"Well..."

"Hey you two! I've got some toad and slug bits from the lake today! We can add them both and really mess her up."

"Wonderful, Ginny!" Pause. "Fine, give me that."

"That's what you have to wear!"

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Halloween Night

"Now that we have finished our wondrous feast, let us take an hour or so to refresh ourselves. Once everyone has put on their costumes, please return here for the party. First through third years may remain at the party until nine-thirty and fourth years and over have until midnight. Hurry along now.."

In an empty classroom conveniently located near the dungeons, the group of seven met... Well, at least that's where they would meet once the girls finished their primping and bothered to arrive.

"Maybe you should have remembered to take into account the fact that we weren't planning on making an entrance until the lower years had gone to bed." Hermione commented as she and Ginny arrived. Both were covered in hooded cloaks.

Ginny placed Ron's chess set on a desk while Hermione dropped a deck of Exploding Snap cards down nearby and seated herself, immediately burying her nose in a book for her own amusement.

"Hey, it's often said that _true_ geniuses forget the little details of life." George was seated comfortably in his costume, snubbing the resident Hogwarts Genius for her comment.

Fred, in a costume identical to George's, was showing the Marauder's Map to Ron and Draco while outlining a plan. Draco had been sworn to secrecy on the Map in a magically binding oath. The eagle and wolf would wait at a concealed spot behind a statue until given a signal. The signal would be an exploding Filibusters. When the firework exploded, they would transform and race as fast as possible to Umbridge's quarters.

Fred and George had spent the last couple nights with Harry's Invisibility Cloak and the Marauder's Map to gather the information needed to gain entrance to those quarters and do a bit of spying. Once inside, they were to head into the toad's bedroom, yes it was an awful job, and in her nightstand drawer was a silver flask. They were to empty the flask and replace the contents with the Polyjuice.

Once things were back into place, Ron and Draco needed to exit a different way and that would be out the window. Draco would have to entrust himself to Ron and fly down where he would come in the Entrance Hall. Ron would fly up to Gryffindor Tower and come down to the Great Hall from there.

"If all goes according to plan, she'll drink from the flask before bed like she has every time we've spied upon her and then by morning she'll be out of our hair." Fred seemed pleased, even though he wouldn't be doing the dirty work. Or perhaps it was because he wouldn't be doing the dirty work. "If our distraction is good enough, no one will even notice that you two hadn't arrived yet and you should be able to slip into the Great Hall while we've still got them distracted."

Harry leaned toward Hermione. "It really is a good plan. Maybe we should have included them in more of the things we've done since first year."

Just then, the clock chimed nine-thirty alerting those in the Great Hall that it was time for the lower years to call it a night while those in the dungeon classroom rose from their places, cleaning up.

"Time for last minute preparations..."

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The Party...

It was quarter to ten and the older students were allowing themselves to loosen up now that the younger students had been sent away. With the assortment of costumes, most of which were glamor charms or transfiguration work, no one could really tell who had arrived and who hadn't. It wasn't until a savage roar and the crack of a whip rang across the Hall that they realized not everyone was in attendance yet...

Somehow managing to ignore the whistles, wolf howls and catcalls, Hermione Granger slunk into the Hall. She was dressed in a skimpy leather outfit that consisted of a sports bra, loincloth, shin guards and gauntlets. The leather was blood red and had bits of golden mock armor and an elaborate golden mask accented the wild curls of her hair. In her right hand was her wand, an electric gold whip of magic streaming from the tip and in the other hand were the ends of two sturdy chains. The chains were about ten feet long and on the end of each was a massive tiger. Hermione cracked her whip, drawing attention so that no one noticed the tigers closing the doors.

Slinking with feline grace, the amazon costumed Hermione had the eyes of nearly every male in the room on her as she cracked her whip again, leading the tigers out onto the dance floor. Once there, the twins shifted back into their hybrid forms and more than one female in attendance gasped at the sight. They were dressed as slaves! Chains now wrapped around their waists and attached to their collars, the buff and scantily clad twins started to dance with their amazon mistress in a way that caused more than a few blushes. With the swaying tails and barely covered bodies, no one noticed as a few items fell before they moved their dance away from the center of the floor.

Professor McGonagall seemed to be sputtering with outrage while next to her Professor Snape had turned an unhealthy combination of red and green... That was when a loud, angry neigh from outside the doors drew everyone's attention to the fact that Harry Potter had yet to arrive.

Rearing up and smashing his front hooves into the door of the Great Hall, causing them to slam open, Harry Potter made a rather dangerous entrance. His pegasus form was all shadow and smoke as he reared almost threateningly in his pose. Flaming wings were spread wide, smoke rising from his hooves at his heated entrance. Emerald orbs literally glowed with power that made some of the students shudder. Dropping to all fours, it wasn't until he started to charge into the room and scatter students left and right that anyone even noticed Ginny.

Mounted on Harry's back; Ginny's left hand was holding onto reins of fire attached to a bit held securely in Harry's mouth. Her hybrid form had been charmed into demonic exaggeration, long claws and fangs, even bone wings growing from her back. Her red hair was literally flaming and a wicked black sword was held in her free hand. She wore outlandish armor that accentuated her figure while making her seem deadly with the spikes that seemed to be dripping blood. There even seemed to be a metal spike on her tail.

As Harry reached the center of the dance floor, he beat his flaming wings, rising into the air for a moment before smashing his magically heated and smoking hooves to the floor. As he hit the ground, an explosion occurred and flaming fireworks went off in all directions causing the students to scatter even further.

"Miss Weasley! Mr Potter! What is the meaning of this?" Professor McGonagall seemed enraged. "You could have trampled someone with that kind of entrance!" While she was admittedly impressed, Minerva couldn't show it with their reckless and dangerous entrance. Someone had to keep order...

Across the room, Professor Flitwick was fluttering near Professor Dumbledore. "Thirty points to Gryffindor for excellent use of charms." The cornish pixie professor squeaked softly, causing the Willy Wonka Dumbledore to grin. They had been giving out house points for such things the entire evening...

Oh yeah, _someone_ definitely had to keep order.

And apparently Professor McGonagall wasn't doing a good enough job of keeping her Gryffindors in line as Dolores Umbridge decided to waddle her way into the situation. She was hideously attired in a costume that they assumed was supposed to make her look queenly, but 'Queen' Umbridge looked like a pauper compared to McGonagall's piratess costume. The demon horse that was Harry cringed slightly at the sight of her and Ginny tried not to gag.

"Well, I should have known... Totally incompetent way of disciplining students here, Minnie." George later swore that he thought McGonagall was going to use her pirate pistol on Umbridge when the toad called her that. "I think that for such reckless endangerment of the other students there should be at least a week's worth of detentions."

Hermione only just snagged Fred and George's chains before they could attack the Toad Queen. She pulled them further into the crowd of students and out of sight. "Don't." She hissed at them. "You know that if the plan works they won't be in detention."

"And you had better be glad that those friends of your's had waited so long to arrive or I'd have them in detention for their scandalous display." Umbridge scanned the crowd but didn't see Hermione or the twins.

Harry was about to say something when a flicker of gold near the door caught his eye. A quick glance and he saw a Cupid Ron making his way to the snack table. Hanging his head as though properly chastised, Harry spotted a shimmer of silver on the other side of the Great Hall. The dashing form of a Prince Wolf gave a vague sort of nod before joking with some nearby Slytherins about the attention seeking Gryffindors. Suddenly, Harry didn't mind the threat of Detentions.

Once the Professors had wandered away, McGonagall looking as if she were about to spit nails at Umbridge, Harry felt Ginny slide off his back. He shifted into his hybrid form and stretched out his flaming wings as he bowed to the bone winged demon otter.

"May I have this dance, milady?"

"I'd be delighted, kind sir!"

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The next day...

"You see Remus, something dreadfully urgent must have come up. Poor Dolores took off in a frightful hurry. She didn't even have the courtesy to take off her hood while telling me that she had to leave. I'm sure you understand the bit of a pickle I'm in..." Dumbledore's eyes were twinkling at an insane rate.

"Of course, Albus. I'd be delighted to be the Defense Against the Dark Arts Professor again..."

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**A/N:** I hope everyone enjoyed this chapter. I must say I had fun with it. Hint for the next chapter: The Full Moon! (Does anyone else get a strange mental image of the Marauders dancing out 'The Full Monty' when thinking of things like that? ... Just checking.) 


	13. All Good Things

**A/N:** This one is dedicated to all my reviewers... Even though technically all the chapters are dedicated to the reviewers! Anyway, I couldn't do this without the inspiration I get from the great reviews! Thanks everyone!

**To Kd7sov**... I didn't have all the toad's security measures because, as I've mentioned in previous author's notes, I haven't actually read the 5th book yet. Sorry, I just didn't know about them. And Umbridge didn't see Hermione or the twins because just before that I had Hermione pull the twins further into the crowd of onlookers to help prevent them from attacking her.

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After Dolores Umbridge was fleeing the castle and as Dumbledore was rehiring Remus Lupin to be the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, Professor Severus Snape was nearing the end of a task that had taken him all night to accomplish. He was getting completely pissed. Sitting on his favorite chair in his private quarters, Severus was still wearing his Zorro costume from the night before. Despite the costume, it was doubtful that he would ever learn that it was not an intelligent decision to make a bet with Minerva McGonagall. But his gambling problems were not the reason he was getting drunk. The sheer fact of the matter was that he had failed. And not only had he failed, but he had failed at his best subject! 

Nearly an hour later, Severus found himself staring into the mouth of an empty bottle of scotch. He stared at the bottle with a confused expression before deciding that maybe he should call a house elf to bring him more. Looking around the room revealed that he was alone. "Where the bloody hell are all the elves?" He asked the bottle. "Santa's Helpers my arse..." He somehow managed to stand and peered cautiously behind his chair to see if an elf were hiding. No elf, but he did spot a bottle of brandy sitting on his desk and forgot about the worthless excuse for Santa's Elves as he stumbled over a rug on his way to the desk.

Spotting a piece of parchment on the desk, Severus seated himself and snatched a quill. Scribbling a long note onto the parchment, he pushed up on the brim of his Zorro hat and rose from the desk. Taking the parchment and bottle of brandy in one hand, he staggered to the door and out into the corridor where he spotted Pansy Parkinson talking to Blaise Zabini.

From what he could hear, Pansy was trying to convince Blaise yet again to get all of the boys out of their dormitory so that she could sneak in and learn just how much of an animal the resident Slytherin Wolf was. Even Severus knew that wouldn't help, Draco was paying the other boys in the dorm to make certain Pansy didn't accomplish her goal. As Pansy's shrill whine grew louder, Severus decided it was time for him to intervene as the Slytherin Head of House.

_Swish!_ "Eek!" Pansy suddenly found herself pinned against a wall with the tip of a sword wavering dangerously close to her throat and an annoyed Professor Snape glaring at her from behind a black mask. "Umm... Is there anything I can do for you, Professor?" Her timid squeak only served to rattled Severus' already rattled mind. She was frightened, who wouldn't be with the tall form of Severus Snape towering over you as he swayed unsteadily and held a sword point at your throat?

Narrowing his eyes, Severus stared hard at Pansy. "Yes... You can keep your... Filthy fingers off the wolf..." Seeing her frightened look turn rather confused, Severus forced an explanation out of his intoxicated mind. "Have you noticed that he sparkles? Silver! In the shadow of all places!" He moved the sword, waving it around for emphasis and Pansy edged away. "That means he's pure! Pure I tell you! He doesn't need a little tart like you tarnishing him! No! When you've got a pure silver you need another precious metal for it!" Giving a nod, certain that his point was clear, Severus swirled away, his Zorro cape swishing emphatically as he stumbled down the corridor.

"What the Hell was that about?" A bewildered Pansy turned a confused and frightened look to Blaise.

Blaise was leaning against the wall, his tall, dark form hidden in the shadows. He had been silently laughing since the moment Snape had opened his mouth and at Pansy's question all he could do was burst into loud laughter.

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The next day, anyone that went down to the dungeons for Potions found a long note on the door. The writing was difficult to make out, but the fact that it was signed with a large Z beneath Snape's signature and held in place with a dagger made them pay a bit of attention. Apparently they were given a lot of summer homework type work and potions classes were on temporary hiatus...

A party was later held in the Hufflepuff and Gryffindor common rooms while the Ravenclaws mourned the loss of more learning and the Slytherins mourned the fact that a former Gryffindor and werewolf was made their temporary Head of House.

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It was the evening before the night of the full moon and Sirius was leading the group informally known as The Animalities through the 'Pre-Moony Crash Course' as he called it. Basically the entire course went something like this:

"Everything that Moony's taught you about self-control... Forget it. Just have fun!"

Sirius had grinned. It wouldn't be as fun without Prongs and, though he hated to admit it even Wormtail, but he intended to enjoy the night of Padfoot and Moony with the larger group.

"Now, first things first." Sirius strolled around the half-circle of students. "Into your animal forms. You're about to be given your new nicknames." Who better to name The Animalities than the Marauders? Of course since Remus was currently working up the courage to down his wolfsbane, he wasn't going to be much help in the nicknaming department.

Within moments a group of animals filled the clearing and Sirius put on his most serious expression as he walked back and forth. _Hmm, well... Better start with the easiest first_, he decided and walked over to Harry.

Walking around the glossy black pegasus, Sirius made a show of inspecting him from the top of his shaggy head to the tips of his sparkly silver hooves. He stopped facing Harry and traced a line over the lightning bolt blaze on his forehead. "I hereby dub thee... Bolt."

Harry's emerald orbs rolled. "Gee, could you be any more lazy in thinking of a name for me?"

Sirius just gave him a cheeky grin and moved on to Ron. "Hmm... I've never thought of having a bird in the group." He pondered the situation as he inspected the golden eagle. Unlike traditional golden eagles that were brown with golden markings, Ron was a shade of red that glimmered gold in the light. It was rather like looking into a galleon filled bank vault in the dim lighting the goblins provided at Gringotts.

"Ronald Weasley, I hereby dub thee... The Galleon Glider. Or just Galleon for short." Ron preened at this. After all, galleons were no laughing matter!

Bolt and Galleon stepped aside as Sirius moved to Ginny. This was a bit harder. Not only was there no real distinguishing feature about the otter, but she was a girl! Giving a girl a nickname was on par with being asked for a serious opinion on what you thought you should name their child! Sirius' drew his brows together and pondered hard on the little otter.

"Bloodpaw."

Sirius' voice startled Ginny after his thoughtful silence and the suggestion of nicknames was a bit disturbing as well. Automatically she found her gaze moving down to look at her paws. Sure enough, the way the deep red sparkled on her dark paws made it look as if they had been dipped in blood. She turned her head up to look at Sirius. "A bit morbid, but I think I like it."

Looking slightly relieved, Sirius smiled and made it official. "I hereby dub thee Bloodpaw." He patted Ginny's head and moved on to the twins. To his untrained eye they were identical. "Oh now here's an easy task." The sarcasm was unmistakable and caused a few chuckles.

Sirius circled the twins quite a few times as he considered. This wasn't an easy task that could be lumped off as Fred, Forge, Gred or George... No, the twins needed good nicknames and Sirius would be the one to give them.

"What do you think, Moony?"

Or maybe Remus could do it...

Remus lifted his head, looking ill as he had finally managed to drink the potion. He gave a slight shrug, as stumped as Sirius. "I don't know... Left and Right?"

Sirius threw a stick at Remus and scowled. "A fat lot of help you are."

"If it helps any, Sirius..." Hermione's mental purr was amused. "This one is George." She pushed her paw against George's shoulder, leaving a faint print against the ginger fur.

Eyes brightening instantly at the inspiration provided by Hermione, Sirius patted George upon his head. "I hereby dub thee..." Sirius paused dramatically. "Prints!"

A couple of groans met that, but George seemed okay with the nickname and moved to stand beside Bloodpaw, Galleon and Bolt. Bloodpaw immediately started dusting the pawprint off of Prints' shoulder.

Fred now found himself under intense scrutiny. "Can't give you anything too similar sounding to Prints. But we don't want anything obvious either like Stripe or Cattail..." Sirius pursed his lips and then brightened. "Ah ha! We'll stick with the twin theme, sounds different, but a similar meaning." He cleared his throat. "I hereby dub thee... Tracks!"

Remus laughed. "I haven't seen you this into anything since the last big prank you pulled on Severus when we were still in school, Sirius."

Sirius stuck his tongue out at Remus and turned his intense grey eyes on Hermione. "Well, the first thing that comes to mind is Fluffy..." Seeing her start to bristle at the idea, he hurried on. "But seeing as I enjoy having all my manly bits in place, we'll find something more fitting."

Walking around the smaller, though still large cat, Sirius gave her the same scrutiny he had given the others. Her fur did have a less glossy, though still shiny look that made her seem rather fluffy, but the evil glimmer in her amber eyes completely rid him of the urge to make that her official nickname. The fur on her chin, throat and belly was a lighter shade than the rest, which was a tawny golden brown shade. The tip of her long tail and the tips of her ears as well as the few cougar markings on her face were a dark chocolate brown. For the life of Sirius, aside from Fluffy or Chocolate Chips, nothing came to mind and neither name was very Marauder-ish. Figures that she would just seem like an ordinary cougar.

Rubbing at the light trace of stubble on his jaw, Sirius peered at the female cougar thoughtfully. _Let's see... Female, feline, wild, aggressive, powerful... Duh! You can be so slow sometimes, Padfoot! _Sirius mentally berated himself for not thinking of Hermione's name sooner.

"I hereby dub thee... Wildcat!" Sirius seemed pleased, despite another lazy name... Though admittedly this lazy name had taken longer than the last. Wildcat rolled her eyes and joined the group which all turned to examine the bored, though slightly amused, wolf known normally as Draco Malfoy.

"Never thought I'd see the day that a Malfoy would be given a Marauder-ish name." Sirius shook his head before doing the slow circling examination routine.

Draco's snow white fur seemed to absorb the light and reflect it back blindingly. When the wind caused the branches to sway over the clearing and cover him in shadows, he shimmered silvery. It was an interesting effect, as far as Sirius was concerned and he was tempted to call him Sickle for the color. But he knew that Ron's Galleon to Draco's Sickle would cause fights he didn't feel like dealing with, so he didn't even voice the thought. He stopped, looking into the silvery eyes of the wolf. Hmm...What name could he give that a Malfoy would actually find acceptable. Though now that he thought about it, he only had to give a name that Hermione liked because he had discovered that Malfoy saw Hermione as his pack leader. That certainly made it a bit easier.

"I hereby dub thee..." Sirius paused, uncertain as to if he had selected properly for his cousin. "Moonshine."

Draco's muzzle curled up in his trademark sneer. "Isn't that rather... Girly?"

Sirius looked bored. "Well, if you prefer, you could be Pearl. Or perhaps Cloud. Maybe Snowflake?"

Scowling, Draco lowered his head and padded over to the others, sitting next to Hermione. "Fine."

Smiling now, Sirius turned to Remus. "Moony! I am pleased to present... For the first time... Bolt! Galleon! Bloodpaw! Prints! Tracks! Wildcat! And Moonshine! The Animalities!"

Remus smiled, rising to his feet and clapping as each stepped forward as their new nickname was called.

Ginny chirped, "Now all we need are instruments and a catchy theme song!"

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By request of Remus, the Animalities waited near the edge of the Forbidden Forest while the moon rose. The Shrieking Shack was just far enough away that they could barely make out the screams as Remus transformed into Moony. They all shifted uncomfortably at the sounds. This caused Bolt to whicker at Galleon because Galleon couldn't see as well in the dark and was perched on Bolt's back. An eagle shifting wasn't very comfortable when the talons caught on the skin beneath fur.

"Sorry..." Galleon muttered and soon a howl pierced the air in the distance, cutting him off.

Instinctively, Moonshine rose to his feet and howled in response. It wasn't quite a werewolf howl, but it was enough to guide the werewolf and Grim-like dog toward the group. Tracks and Prints rose to their feet as the two Marauders arrived, curious glances given to the werewolf.

Though Bolt, Galleon and Wildcat had seen Moony before, the varying circumstances only now afforded them the chance to admire him. He was larger than Moonshine, his tail a bit shorter and his fur a dark grey color with light brown highlights. His golden eyes were a more intense color than the twins and the fangs in his slightly short wolf muzzle seemed to be wicked dangerous compared to even the larger teeth of the felines present. All in all, he was an impressive figure of a werewolf.

"So what do the Marauders do when out on the full moon?" Prints was the one to finally break the silence.

Moony and Padfoot exchanged glances before Padfoot's voice came to them. It wasn't the same as when an Animality spoke, apparently animagi communicated more like animals and it took them a moment to realize what he was saying.

_:Well, when we were in Hogwarts we didn't have the wolfsbane potion, so we mostly stuck to the forest... But now, I don't see any reason why we can't go and play in Hogsmeade.:_ The large black dog gave a canine grin, tongue lolling out in amusement.

Moony grinned, the gesture slightly intimidating. :That sounds fun, I've never gotten a chance to do that, though I know you, Prongs and Wormtail used to wander in there sometimes.: The werewolf was easier to understand, though still not as easy as the Animality projected telepathy.

Turning swiftly to lead the way, Padfoot took off in the appropriate direction, as he was the one that traveled in this form most often and knew the way best. Galleon opted to take to the dark skies and fly toward the town by following the lights so that his talons wouldn't hurt anyone that carried him and Bloodpaw, her short otter legs not offering as much speed on land, took his place on Bolt's back, clinging to his mane. Then they were off.

It was the first time the Animalities really got a chance to run without worrying about any consequences and they loved the feeling of freedom. Wildcat, Prints and Tracks would fall back from time to time as their bodies grew tired from the run, then they would overtake the others easily as their more human endurance kicked in. Bolt took to running around the group as his longer legs, better endurance and different build allowed him to run circles around him. It turned out Padfoot's name choice was a bit better than anyone had thought. Moonshine took to racing with Moony, the wolf and were becoming slightly more friendly now that they had met face to face. Bloodpaw chirped and squeaked happily as she rode the pegasus and from overhead they could hear Galleon screech every now and then to let them know he was still there.

After a thoroughly enjoyable run, they reached the outskirts of Hogsmeade. The felines were panting, their species not quite up for long runs at such speeds and Galleon was waiting for them from his perch on a low branch. He turned his piercing blue eyes on the group. "You know, if I didn't know any better, I'd have thought that a stamped was coming this way."

Bloodpaw threw a pebble in his direction, but missed.

_:Now, I don't know about you, but the best way to start the night is with a visit from The Grim...:_ Padfoot's voice was slightly malicious as he stalked silently into the village. He kept to the shadows and stopped near the Hog's Head Pub, waiting. The others moved quickly into the shadows. Sure enough, within fifteen minutes someone wandered half-drunk out of the pub.

Padfoot crept out of hiding and sat. That's all. He just sat... And stared. As the drunk stumbled closer to the dog, a soft growl was heard. The drunk stopped, lifting his head up. A gasp was heard. "The... The..." Unable to even say the word, and aside from the slight attention gaining growl Padfoot didn't so much as move, merely staring at the man. Giving a shriek of terror, the man backpeddled as fast as he could and ran back into the bar where they heard the panicked shouts of "The Grim! The Grim!" but when someone else looked out there, Padfoot had already returned to the laughing group of animals waiting.

:With that said and done... Let's have fun: Even Moony was more relaxed at times like this and soon the group spread out to play with the people that wandered around town at night.

And so the night went. Bolt amused himself by preening in the moonlight, causing a few late night strollers to admire the black and silver pegasus. What they didn't notice was the hybrid form of Wildcat hiding around the corner as Bolt turned bright green eyes on the couple. They gaped as the pegasus' eyes glowed and then ran screaming when it reared up, wings catching flame and hooves raising sparks on the ground while fangs grew in the equine mouth. Running until they couldn't breathe, the couple turned back only to find nothing there. Bolt and Wildcat both found this hilarious and pulled it on several groups of people that night.

Bloodpaw managed to slip into the Three Broomsticks when no one was paying attention. She returned carefully carrying a couple bottles of butterbeer in her short forelegs and holding a wooden bowl with her teeth. Thanks to Bloodpaw's craftiness, the group got to experiment with lapping up warm butterbeer, a novelty Moony found amusing. No one ever did find out if Bloodpaw had paid for the butterbeers or not...

Moonshine and Moony found a certain comraderie while both pretending to be werewolves. Turns out most people can't tell the difference, something Wildcat didn't understand at all. One or the other would come round a corner and startle a person only to have them turn and see the other one. It was made even more amusing when the person would turn to run to the side only to see The Grim staring silently at the scene. Padfoot and Moonshine definitely got a kick out of that, though Moony felt a bit guilty each time.

Prints and Tracks made use of a similar trick, though their's was a bit more annoying. Somehow they managed to make more than one person think they were surrounded by a dozen tigers as the two seemed to be everywhere at once. It was hard to tell if they were using a duplication charm, speed, or just the human tendency to exaggerate encounters to accomplish this task. Either way the twins found it amusing...

Then the real fun of the evening occurred.

About halfway between moonrise and moonset, who should they happen to see come waltzing out of one of the seedier shops in the distant side of Hogsmeade than Lucius Malfoy. Surprisingly enough, Moonshine lowered his head, snarling furiously and hackles raised at the sight of his father. Everyone was surprised at this, but no one questioned him.

"We need to do something to him... All of us as a group."

Moonshine's request lead to a hasty plan and it was soon put into action. Padfoot was set to go out first. After all, The Grim appearance that he gave off was always enough to get wizards and witches to pause.

Lucius walked along, humming to himself and wondering if he should drop by Hogwarts to visit Severus. He didn't even get time to contemplate it when he heard something coming from up ahead. Placing one hand lightly atop the snake's head on his cane, Lucius slowed. He didn't stop though, at least not until he found himself ten feet away from a massive black dog.

Stopping, Lucius's silver eyes met the unblinking stare of the dog. His lip curled up into a sneer and he pulled his wand from the end of his cane. Raising his arm, he was just about to throw a hex at the beast when it bared it's teeth at him. Lucius didn't even get a chance to speak a spell before he heard deep growling coming from behind him. While he didn't want to turn his back on the dog, the growling was a bit disturbing and, against his better judgment, he turned.

Staring at Lucius, long fangs gleaming in the moonlight were two tigers, both growling deep in their throats. Lucius took an hasty step back only to be stopped by a harsh bark and a snarl. He turned again, expecting The Grim to be staring at him, but the black dog was gone and in it's place was a white wolf that shimmered like a ghost in the moonlight. Before he had time to wonder what was going on, the growls at his back rose in volume and were joined by one from each side. Whirling, he caught sight of a cougar seemingly walking out of a wall to confront him and, even more frightening, a werewolf coming from the opposite side.

Momentarily panicking, Lucius spun. His wand pointing to each of the mysterious animals in turn. Then he heard the thudding of galloping hooves and he felt a moment of relief when it seemed all of the animals turned toward the sound. His moment of relief soon turned into fear as the flaming black and silver apparition rode closer. A demon covered in spikes with a flaming head rode on the back of a demon horse, the burning wings seeming to give it greater speed as it charged straight toward him.

A burning sword rose over the demon's head as it drew closer, the metal shrieking in the still night air. Just when Lucius thought it was going to run him through, he felt something crack into the back of his head and he knew no more.

Galleon dropped the brick he had carried in his talons and perched on a nearby roof. His night had been relatively boring, though he would never admit he had been peeping in people's windows and when the chance to crack Lucius in the head arose, he took it. He couldn't wait until the Christmas Holidays when he could safely tell his father. "You know, I think this was a good night after all."

The others nodded smug agreement as Bloodpaw slid off Bolt's back and poured some firewhiskey on Lucius' robes and some into his mouth. She threw the bottle away as Wildcat rid them of their Halloween Costume charms. Feeling that their night in town was over, the group headed to spend the rest of the full moon playing in the Forest.

Though not as openly happy as the others, Moonshine felt satisfied as they headed into the woods. He never would tell them why he had requested such tricks on his father, but considering who it was he had asked, he didn't think they would really care. After all, no one really liked the Malfoys...

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November was almost over when the call came on a Saturday evening. Seven students, though not all friends, found themselves once more down in the dungeons. Professor Snape looked a right awful mess, but he assured them that this time the potion was tested, proven and would work. He roughly pushed the cups at the students and glared at them, daring them to so much as say a word.

Draco was the first to drink, always trusting of his godfather. The bitter liquid slid down his throat and he felt the oddest melting sensation... Mostly on his bum! He actually glanced over his shoulder to see and watched as his tail melted beneath his robes and out of sight. His muzzle was soon gone and the fur that covered his body as well. His senses dulled back to that of a normal human and then Draco Malfoy was back once more.

"Finally, I don't have to be lumped together with mudbloods and blood traitors anymore." He was safe saying such things with Snape right there and, with one final sneer, Draco breezed out of the dungeons.

Almost reluctantly the others drank the potion. One by one tails, wings, fur and feathers melted back into nothing. Ron grew to his normal height once more and Hermione, Fred and George shrank back to their normal sizes. Claws and talons vanished and freckles came back into sharp relief while eyes and hair resumed normal coloration. A few adjustment charms and clothing fit once more, though shoes were noticeably missing. A sense of loss came as instincts shifted back to normal and senses dulled.

After a moment of silence, Hermione finally spoke. "Umm... Thank you, Professor."

Snape's only response was a nod before he told them to get out of his sight. "And don't forget that your regular schedules start again Monday!"

It was a silent group that returned to Gryffindor Tower that night.

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Things had returned seemingly returned to normal overnight and one would think that Draco had never been forced to spend so much time with a group of annoying Gryffindorks. Insults flew back and forth and even a number of hexes were cast. It was as if the last few months had never happened.

One morning, two weeks after they were cured, Harry, Ron, Ginny, Fred, George and Hermione awoke to find the strangest thing. Right in front of their faces as their eyes. Resting gently on each pillow was a book. Not just any kind of book, but a photo album. Covers were curiously opened and smiles broke out and soon the all six had carried their books down to the Gryffindor Common Room.

"Can you believe that tricky bloke?" Ron exclaimed, holding up his golden-red covered book to show the writing on the inside of the front cover. They all read the same: _Thank you for such wonderfully amusing moments this year! -Albus Dumbledore. Pictures courtesy of Colin Creevey._

"That sneak. He said that no one was allowed in while we were in the Hospital Wing!" Hermione was more amused than anything else, pointing to one of the first pictures in her book. It was of her spring out from behind a privacy screen and attacking Fred.

"That really hurt, you know." Fred pouted, though brightened as he showed the picture of the drowned rat Hermione in the lake.

Ginny was frowning, because that picture took place in the same time frame as one in her album of her sitting on the sofa brushing her fingers through Harry's hair. "Colin can't have taken all of these pictures. Some of them are happening at the same time in different places."

"I can explain that." They turned to see a grinning Colin behind them. "Professor Dumbledore told me it was OK to tell how I got them all once you had gotten your books... Especially since I'm giving it back to him now." Colin reached into his pocket and pulled out a gold chain from which a tiny hourglass hung. Hermione's jaw dropped with surprise and then she started laughing as Colin waved and skipped out of the common room to take the time turner back to Dumbledore.

The group spent the rest of the day looking through their photo albums and pointing out their favorite pictures. Some were in all of the books, and a few pictures were only in some of them. A favorite was the one of 'Fredina' that every book came equipped with. Ron, peeking at Harry's book found a picture of Harry and Ginny kissing at the costume party. "Hey! I don't remember that!"

The next page was one that had them all staring in a mixture of amusement, awe and horror... Colin Creevey, the sneaky little devil, had managed to catch a picture of Dolores Umbridge fleeing the castle! In the background you could see his little brother practicing spells and one 'accidently' setting Umbridge's hooded cloak on fire! The photo Umbridge threw the cloak off, stomping on it with oversized, green webbed feet. She was a hideous creature, green and slimy and covered in mangy green fur. Large rat ears were on the toad's head and she had a hairless tail. Her wide toad mouth screeched something in the camera's direction before twitching her whiskers and running away from Hogwarts! The six Gryffindors cheered!

Two of the pages in Hermione's book were crowded with pictures, ones that she quickly flipped so that no one would see...Not that it did her any good as it turned out that Fred _and_ George had similar pages... It was just after the pictures of the Hogsmeade trip, though how they had missed seeing Colin there, no one knew. It was Hermione and the twins in their hybrid forms kissing beneath the full moon. It seemed that Hermione was now a part of two trios...

The last picture in all of the albums was the same, seven hybrid students were sitting on one of the walls and chatting. It didn't seem to matter that one squished near the middle was wearing different colors on his tie than the others, someone that didn't know the group would have thought the seven were the best of friends. It was the day before they were given the cure.

"You know..." Ron started, staring thoughtfully at the last picture. "He wasn't a bad bloke. Not really."

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Seemingly hundreds of miles away, yet really very close, a certain blond youth was peering at that exact same picture. Pale fingers brushed gently over the image before the album was closed. Reaching for his wand, the youth cast a quick spell and the book shrank until it resembled a tiny charm. Pulling a silver chain from his nightstand, the minisculealbum was carefully affixed to the necklace and an unbreakable charm was cast.

The chain soon hung aroundthe young wizard's neck and was tucked out of sight beneath his clothes. Patting down the green and silver robes, the tiny weight of the charm felt strangely comforting near his heart. A tiny smile formed on pale lips. In a small way, he felt that he was back with his pack.

Feeling rather wolfish, Draco Malfoy snatched up his broom and made his way out of the Slytherin dormitory for Quidditch practice.

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A/N: Don't worry! It's not quite over... There's still the epilogue to come! (Sorry, it was posted for about twenty minutes, then I realized I forgot the bit about Umbridge's picture and removed it so I could add that part. The chapter is complete now.) See you in the epilogue! 


	14. Epilogue

It had been two years since the incident with the Animality potion. Through fifth year the childish insults remained between the Gryffindors and Slytherins. Draco spent the summer between fifth and sixth year with Professor Snape while the other Animalities spent it at The Burrow. Sixth year came and went and it seemed as if the entire house of Gryffindor no longer existed to the young Malfoy heir. Snape's status as a spy was put to a test near the end of sixth year and, in an elaborate ruse, Albus Dumbledore faked his own death at the hands of Severus Snape while Snape went into hiding with the Dark Lord Voldemort.

Seventh year began and Hermione Granger found herself as Head Girl with Blaise Zabini. The new potions professor, Professor Slughorn, was a lot easier to deal with than Professor Snape had been, but some people still missed the snarky bastard. Remus Lupin had continued to be the Defense Against the Dark Arts professor since the Animalities had unofficially chased off Dolores Umbridge. After a near death experience in the Department of Mysteries, Sirius Black managed to catch Peter Pettigrew and had been cleared of all charges against his name. He was currently the Assistant Transfiguration Professor, assisting Headmistress McGonagall by taking over the first through fourth year classes.

Despite the changes that had occurred, life continued. For the most part people were happy and, in the case of Harry, Ron, Ginny, Hermione, Neville and Luna, an important secret was being kept. They knew that Dumbledore was alive, but thankfully none of them were his Secret Keeper.

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Hermione walked slowly into the Heads' Common Room. Her eyes were dancing as she read the latest letter from her boyfriends Fred and George. She would get to see them in less than a month when she arrived at Number 12 Grimmauld Place, but until then, she had to make due with pouring over every letter. She mumbled a brief greeting to Blaise as she walked through the common room and was soon in the privacy of her room. She grinned, dropping the package of sample jokes onto her desk and nearly jumped out of her skin when a hoot sounded from the window.

Whirling around, wand aimed in defense, Hermione sighed in relief. "Goodness Nightshade, you nearly scared me to death." She re-holstered her wand and put her letter on the desk before making her way over to the owl perched on her window ledge. "What have you got for me this time, boy?" Giving the dark grey owl a treat, she ignored the impatient glare in his black eyes. "Are you waiting for a reply?" Nightshade shook his head, ruffled his feathers and took off out the window, leaving behind a shoebox sized package.

Rolling her eyes at the owl's behavior, Hermione picked up the package and went to her bed. Nightshade never waited for a reply and this was the first time he had ever left a package behind. She curiously tore it open and found rows of potion vials and a letter. Half of the vials held a clear liquid and had red caps while the other half held a blue liquid with green caps. Seven of the vials were purple capped and filled with a shiny black potion. She curiously picked up the letter, not even having to check the bottom of the parchment to know who it was from.

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_Miss Granger,_

_While I still abhor the fact that I have to use you as a contact, I cannot complain that you have been indiscreet. Therefore I have decided to send you a gift with this warning._

_Be prepared, He plans on striking Hogwarts at midnight New Years Eve. Cancel the parties and strike back. He's expecting an easy takeover. Prove him wrong._

_The red capped potions are the perfected Animality potion. Give them to the Order and practice with the forms. The green caps are the cure. The fighting abilities granted will be an asset He will not be expecting. Enclosed are the ingredients and instructions to duplicate both._

_Now for the gift... The seven purple capped vials will work only on those who have spent a generous amount of time under the influence of the Animality potion. I've adapted and perfected a variation of the potion with a few perks that I'm sure you will find particularly useful. There is no more of it, however. I have already destroyed the remaining variation and the notes on how to brew the potion._

_I'm sure you will want to run along and tell your friends now. See you at New Year's..._

_S. S. - Nightshade_

-----

Hermione frowned slightly and took one of the black potions from the box. _A variation of the Animality potion? _She'd be lying through her teeth if she said she wasn't tempted to take it. But she was Hermione Granger, after all. And Hermione Granger didn't take a mysterious black potion based off the words of a letter. She stared hard at the vial. _It's taunting me, I'm sure of it..._

Giving in to the temptation, Hermione popped the cap off the vial and downed it in a single go. She gagged slightly, the potion's taste reminding her of dirty laundry for some reason and doubled over with a stomach cramp. _Oh God! He's poisoned me! I should have known! _But then the pain was gone and she felt rather silly... But she also knew. She could feel it. Turning to her mirror, she looked exactly the same as she had moments before taking the potion and she marveled at Nightshade's genius.

Grinning, Hermione scooped four of the remaining six purple capped vials into her hand. A glance at the clock told her that it was almost dinner time, so she knew where to find those she for whom she now searched. Slipping the vials into a pocket of her robe, Hermione tore off out of her room and down to the Great Hall.

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A few startled shrieks from outside of the Great Hall drew the attention of nearly everyone to the doors as the Professors rose in their seats, hands reaching for their wands. They didn't have to wait long, however, as a moment later a shattering roar pierced the air as a large, tawny cougar burst into the Hall and leaped atop the Gryffindor table. Thankfully it wasn't quite close enough to dinner time for there to be anything on the tables yet and nothing was upset.

First and Second years that knew nothing of the situation screeched in surprise while the older students gasped as vague memories returned and four students shot to their feet in shock. The cougar roared again and charged down the length of the table, sliding to a halt in front of Harry Potter, Ronald Weasley and Ginevra Weasley. The stillness of the beast soon drew a quiet to the Hall and the sound of familiar laughter penetrated the sudden quiet.

Before everyone's eyes, the cougar shifted, turning into a hybrid of human and animal, a familiar hybrid of human and animal. Still laughing, Hermione then willed herself from the hybrid form to her full human form as the grins of her friends grew. She reached into her pocket as the whispers of the other students started and, in a moment as Headmistress McGonagall tried to restore order, slipped the vials to the other three with a wink. She got off the table as Minerva took ten points off of Gryffindor for the Head Girl's antics.

Giving her mentor a cheeky grin, Hermione casually strolled over to the Slytherin table and stopped beside Draco Malfoy. The silence from the Hall as everyone waited to see if he hexed her was impressive. Her smile growing, Hermione pulled another vial from her pocket and held it out to Draco with a challenging look.

"Well Moonshine... Are you ready to come back to us?"

Draco's expression was cool, calculating as he looked not at the vial, but into Hermione's chocolate brown eyes. After five minutes of staring, neither blinking, he lowered his head to look at the vial in her hand. The movement caused the tiny charm hanging around his neck to rub against his skin; a delicate reminder. A smirk formed on his features and he rose from his seat.

Placing his hand over Hermione's, Draco held it for a moment before taking the vial and walking beside her to sit with the rest of his pack at the Gryffindor table.

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**A/N:** Well, Animality has finally finished. :sniffles slightly: I hope everyone had as much fun with it as I did. But this isn't the end! There is a sequel in the works:cheers: The sequel is called 'Chips of Chocolate' and the first chapter will be posted within minutes of this epilogue going up. Thank you to all my reviewers! 


	15. Special: The Final Battle

**A/N:** Please remember, as I've stated in earlier chapters, that I have not read all of the Harry Potter books. I have only read PS, CoS, and PoA. I have issues with reading a book before I see the movie. I'll have GoF read sometime in December. But according to the release dates, I won't get to read OotP until 2007 and HBP won't be until 2008. Any spoiler information in my fics comes from spoilers I have picked up in other fics... Does that make sense? Funny how spoilers don't bother me, but actually reading the book before watching the movie drives me insane with comments like: Hey, so-and-so was supposed to say that line! It doesn't bother me to read spoilers or watch the movie before reading the book though... Basically I really have no idea what I'm talking about, so just enjoy!

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Sirius Black could not remember the last time he had had so much fun! He bounced around the Hospital Wing, inspecting those lying on the beds with great care as he had for the last two days. Occasionally he would give out a great cheer and write something down on a piece of parchment. Once he was done writing, Sirius would give a gleeful giggle and bounce on his way.

After watching these antics, Remus Lupin and Harry Potter both decided that this was the perfect Christmas present for the ex-convict. True it wasn't his only present, as Christmas was still several days away, but if reactions were anything to go by, it was the best Sirius could have ever received...

"I've figured out another one!" Sirius called cheerfully from where he was standing next to a bed. "He might want the antidote right away, though... Poor Creevey."

Harry perked up slightly and wandered over. "What did Colin turn into?" He wondered, peering around the privacy screen at the boy on the bed.

The sleeping sixth year looked positively massive... But they had learned earlier that morning that Colin only looked that way. Whatever form he had taken was positively covered in long, fluffy fur that hid the scrawny sixth year from view.

"A hamster."

Wide emerald eyes turned to stare disbelievingly at Sirius. "A hamster?"

Sirius nodded. "Yes. At first I thought a puffskein, but then I brushed aside some of the fur. He's got claws on his hands and feet. Not to mention the big, sharp buck teeth and large eyes..." The Marauder looked as if he were torn with offering pity to the hamster boy or laughing his head off.

"He's always had large eyes..." Harry seemed somewhat thoughtful, but then shook it off. "Poor Colin. Well, have the cure ready for him. But let him decide if he wants to take it when he wakes up."

Sirius nodded, writing on his parchment.

Harry glanced at the parchment and smirked, shaking his head with amusement.

The parchment contained a list of names. Every member of the Order and DA that had taken the Animality Potion. Some of the names only had the single word 'Immune' written next to them, though a few of those still had nicknames. The other names were slowly adding more information.

Despite protests that someone on the Dark side might find the parchment and learn names they shouldn't know, Sirius wrote it anyway. He wanted to list who turned into which Animality species and, when he thought of them, give them Marauder style nicknames. Sirius was only allowed to keep the list when Moody tried to steal it from him and learned that it had been charmed in the same manner as the Marauder's Map.

"Any of them wake up yet?" Harry asked curiously. He and the original Animalities hadn't spent much time in the Hospital Wing, leaving that to Madam Pomfrey. Harry knew that Sirius' near-constant presence was irritating the mediwitch, but found it more amusing than anything else.

Looking thoughtful for a moment, Sirius flipped ran the tip of his quill over the parchment in thought. "Charlie has shown signs of waking." He led Harry over to the bed occupied by Charlie Weasley.

"And I thought being a pegasus was cool..." Harry's tone was frankly admiring as he peered at the sleeping Weasley.

From what they could tell, Charlie had the heart of a dragon from the moment he started at Hogwarts and now he had the body to match! Though he had already been more muscular than the other Weasleys from working at the dragon preserve, Charlie was now more massive and yet still had a lithe look. His feet hung off the end of the cot on which he slept, his body now too tall to comfortably sleep in normal sized beds. According to Madam Pomfrey, Charlie would be around six and a half feet tall when he stood, a good seven or eight inches taller than he had been.

Charlie was now a rich shade of blue, his tough skin shimmering in the light like a bed of sapphires. Harry was amused to note that, even in his Animality state, Charlie's body was covered in darker blue spots that could only be freckles. The dragon hybrid possessed sharp talons on his fingers and toes and, his short muzzle held wicked fangs that made Remus' werewolf smile seem friendly according to Sirius.

The dragon Animality also had a powerful seeming tail that was thick at the base and tapered to a point before flaring into a spade at the tip. The best part was that they now had another winged Animality on their side. Charlie's leathery dragon wings were impressive compared to the feathered wings of Galleon and Bolt. They had stretched the wings when they had finished growing for measuring and had found them to be nearly fifteen feet from tip to tip.

The best part, though getting Harry to admit such a thing, was probably the fact that Charlie's hair was no longer ginger. It made it so much easier on the eyes to see the relief of the dark blue locks atop Charlie's head instead of the bright ginger that was the Weasley trademark. Though Charlie's hair used to be short and have a slight curl, it now hung straight and down to the middle of his back, hiding a row of small ridges that had formed along his spine. This did nothing to hide the sharp, short horns on Charlie's head, however.

As Sirius and Harry looked at the sleeping dragon, Sirius was considering testing the school's motto about never tickling such a beast. Just as he was about to test the advice, Charlie stirred and pushed himself up from the cot. Turning around, Charlie blinked his eyes before turning a burning crimson gaze at his watchers.

Seeing the burning look, a massive grin formed on Sirius' face and he wrote something down. Once he finished writing, he turned the force of that grin on the newly awakened dragon.

"Welcome back to the living... FireEye."

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Sirius was kept relatively busy the next few days as more and more of the new Animalities awoke. He seemed to want to be the first to greet each one and, if they had a new nickname, he wanted to make certain it was told to them right away so that they wouldn't forget.

After Charlie had awakened, Colin Creevey was soon on his feet. The boy had been embarrassed, admitting that he had lost his train of thought when taking the potion. When Hermione Granger mentioned that having a full hamster might make a good spy, Colin had considered keeping the form. But then he noticed the predatory look in Wildcat's eyes. It also hadn't helped that Kingsley Shacklebolt awoke soon after...

Kingsley, for lack of a better term, creeped out most of those there. His hybrid form seemed to slither when he walked, his forked tongue flicking out from between impossibly long fangs. He no longer had legs, both appendages having combined into a long tail that allowed him to be identified as a naga. From head to tail, Kingsley was covered in tiny scales, the color and pattern marking him as a python.

Harry had been fascinated by Kingsley's form and soon learned that the Auror could speak Parseltongue in his hybrid form. Walking in on the two hissing at each other was enough to give everyone else the shivers.

It was decided that, considering the enemy's penchant for serpents, that Kingsley would make a better spy during the pauses in the battle. The now terrified Colin was only too happy to take the antidote and wait for his next chance at becoming an Animality.

The next awakening was enough to cause giggles from the original Animalities. All seven were now with Sirius, Remus Lupin, Molly Weasley, Madam Pomfrey, Professor Dumbledore and Professor McGonagall as they greeted the newly awakened members of their group.

And who wouldn't get a giggle with the sight of a much shorter Arthur Weasley bouncing out from behind his privacy screen like an over eager puppy. He was covered in ginger fur for the most part, though the tip of his long, bushy tail was snowy white as were the foxglove markings on his hands and feet. Even the dusting of fur from his chin down was white.

The newly dubbed Socks, much to his delight at the Muggle pet name, bowed grandly to the cheers his children were giving him and turned to inspect his relatively tiny hybrid form in the mirror. Small, no more than five feet tall if you didn't count the his large ears, and wiry.

"You know, who would have guessed at my age that I would be such a fox?" The humor of the eldest Weasley brought laughs all around.

Molly, one of those listed as immune to the Animality Potion, moved over to her husband's side and gave him a kiss. "Just as long as you remember that you're my fox."

Though they didn't know why, they had learned when taking the doses that Animagi, Werewolves, Veela and Metamorphmagi were immune to the potion. This had led to the discovery that both Molly and the eldest Weasley song Bill were Animagi.

Molly had been embarrassed to admit that she was an Animagus. Though she, like Minerva McGonagall, was registered. Her form was both surprising and expected of the Weasley Matriarch when she had transformed in front of them for the first time. Molly was a beautiful, obviously powerful, golden lioness. The tuft on her tail was the brilliant red of her hair and caused Sirius to delightedly give her the nickname Redtail. Though no one else called her that, Molly couldn't help blushing when Sirius used the name.

Bill Weasley had revealed himself to be more of a stud than anyone had suspected. When transformed, Bill was a rather impressive stallion. His coat was a pale grey that sparkled like silver in the light. Shimmering obsidian eyes had sparkled with amusement as he had tossed his long, deep auburn mane and tail. While showing off, he had clomped his black hooves and reared up to show his powerful equine body.

They had been outside at the time and, when Bill had pranced around like the brainless stud he pretended to be when flirting information out of Dark witches, Harry had shifted into his full pegasus form. After a bit of male ego posturing, the equines had taken off at a full gallop over the snow covered grounds. This had merely caused the others to roll their eyes and head back indoors.

Shaking himself from the memory, Sirius turned his attention back to Molly and Arthur. But that wasn't such a good idea since the lioness and fox seemed to forget they weren't alone. Turning awake, the urge to shout something about going blind being stifled, Sirius paced the hospital wing to see who would awaken next.

As it turned out, no one else would awaken until the next day. But first...

"Get a room already, you two!"

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The next morning started off rather energetically...

"If I ever hear that stupid... Nickname again I will personally rip your balls off and stuff them down your throat!"

Every conscious male in the Hospital Wing winced in sympathy while the females present couldn't resist laughing. The fight had come when Sirius had gleefully informed one of the three Slytherins helping of her nickname... To say the least, Millicent Bulstrode had not been pleased.

Sirius dangled in the grasp of the powerful hybrid Millicent had become, though it was entirely possible she'd have been able to hold him above the ground just as easily before the transformation. She was even more muscular than before, her body now covered in tiny green scales and powerful reptilian features making her look beautiful... If one were inclined to like the scaly kind!

With her sharp talons scraping his skin where she had a hand fisted into his robes, Sirius was inclined to hastily agree with the large girl he had identified as a Komodo Dragon. "Of course! I'll never say it again!" He yelped like the dog he was when the over-sized lizard girl dropped him on his rear.

"Good." Millicent hissed, showing the dangerous rows of razor sharp teeth that came with her form.

Considering that Komodo Dragons were known for infectious bites that caused death, Sirius gulped at the display. He made a hasty retreat, grabbing up his quill and scribbling the unfortunate choice of nickname for the Slytherin off his list.

"Honestly, Sirius... What girl would want to be called Godzilla?" Hermione rolled her eyes as she walked over to Millicent. As resident cranky female Animality, she figured it would be her task to help any other females that awoke with similar mindsets.

"It seemed like a good idea at the time..." Sirius could be heard muttering as Hermione and Millicent left the Hospital Wing together.

Once the femme fatals had left, Sirius started gently poking at one of the other sleeping girls. The poked girl swatted at the hand and rolled to her side, mumbling something incoherent. Making an exasperated sound, Sirius reached out and smacked her gently on the forehead. "I know you're not asleep anymore..."

Moving with lightning quick reflexes, the girl shot up and had Sirius pinned to the bed before he could blink. She glared down at him, showing off little fangs as she growled. "How dare you interrupt my beauty sleep!"

Sirius laughed. "I had no idea you were so domineering, Parvati Patil..." He leered playfully at the witch. "But, you are no longer Parvati! You are now called Tikki!" He seemed delighted. "Don't you want to know why I would give you that name?"

Parvati's expression flicked rapidly from embarrassment to indignation to curiosity before she finally hopped up. As fast as she had moved to pin Sirius she was across the room and in front of the mirror that she knew would be waiting.

"Ahhhhhhh!" Parvati's scream was filled with teenage fury as Sirius laughed like a madman. "You named me after that stupid storybook character!" She turned a furious look upon the cackling Marauder.

"Well... What was I supposed to do when you turned into such a darling little mongoose?" Sirius grinned devilishly. "C'mere, Rikki-Tikki-Tavi..." He crooked a finger in invitation.

Parvati's eyes blazed with fury before she screamed, "Harry! I'm sorry, but you're no longer going to have a godfather!" The quick and fuzzy weasel of a girl darted after Sirius who had turned into Padfoot and fled the Hospital Wing.

Leaving the others laughing in their wake, a deep, pleasantly rumbling voice rolled over the laughter. "Gee... Don't I get a nice wake up, too?"

Turning to look at the sound, their eyes met the sight of a humanoid bear sitting up in the bed. He yawned. Despite the bear's hulking, formidable appearance he represented, he seemed to radiate 'cuddly teddy bear' more than anything else...

Ginny grinned, remembering who they put in that bed. "Good morning, Neville." She couldn't resist, her playful otter nature sending her over to give the big cuddly bear a hug!

Neville blushed, not that it could be seen well with the dark fuzz covering his face. "Morning, Ginny." He patted the redhead on the back and then got up... And up... And up...

"Good Lord, Neville." Harry seemed impressed as he looked up at the towering bear. "I think you've topped the lot so far. Definitely the tallest of the awake ones..."

Neville grinned sheepishly and lumbered off to the Hospital Wing's facilities without saying anything else.

"Bloody wicked, Lee!" The twins could be heard behind the screen that hid their best friend Lee Jordan from view.

George stuck his head out from behind the screen. "You guys have GOT to see this!" A strong tug was given and two tigers and Lee tumbled from behind the screen.

"Eeeeek!" Ron's girly shriek was followed closely by the eagle hybrid's sudden ascent to ceiling level at the sight.

Harry was hard pressed not to follow Ron's example as Lee came into view. He gulped, standing up and taking a step back.

Ginny had matched Ron for the initial scream, but her's soon turned into one of amusement. "That's great, Lee! How did you manage it?"

"Just talented I guess..." Lee's voice was a bit wispy. He untangled himself from the twins and stood, carefully attempting a few steps on his six legs...

To best describe it, Lee Jordan was a centaur gone wickedly wrong. He was only around six feet tall at the top of his dreadlocked head, seeming normal from the waist up, but from the waist down...

Ron's voice trembled from near the ceiling. "Bloody Hell... I thought we were done with those things in second year!"

"Doesn't look like it, Ron." Harry's voice was wary, eying Lee's form with interest. "That could be good in the long run, though. He might be able to go get the Acromantulas out of the forest to aid us."

Acromantulas indeed! For that is what Lee looked like, an Acromantaur! He had the large spider rear with six big, long, strong legs holding him up from the awkward join at his waist. A closer look revealed that Lee's dreadlocks had been replaced with wicked looking spines that he was currently experimenting with raising and lowering.

"Ew... This feels weird." Lee's look of disgust came when he experimentally laid down a strong, thick cable of webbing. "Nasty! As soon as the fight's over, I'm outa this form."

The twins were congratulating Lee on such a wicked look, speculating quietly on how to use Lee's spider self to terrorize Ron.

"I can hear you, you know!" But no one heard Ron as they were distracted by a doe bounding into the Hospital Wing.

The female deer, appearing much like any other female deer, skidded to a halt and transformed into the familiar face of Katie Bell. "Someone better come save Mr Black from Parvati!" She jerked a thumb over her shoulder before shifting once more to her Animagus form and bounding from the room.

"I'll take it!" Harry was on his hooves and out the door after Katie in a flash.

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Katie and Harry found Sirius and Parvati in the Great Hall. Sirius seemed to be painfully bent over one of the long benches while Parvati had him pinned down, her hands wrapped around his throat. Sirius' face was bright red. Despite Parvati's screeching in two or three languages, the scene wasn't exactly one to inspire worry. Most likely because Sirius was laughing his head off!

Harry shifted out of his pegasus form, the fur and feathers bleeding away until he was back to normal. "Er.. Are we interrupting anything here?"

Parvati froze.

Sirius twisted his head around to grin at Harry and Katie. "Yes! Mind coming back in an hour or so?"

That woke Parvati up! She screeched again and thunked Sirius' head into the bench and suddenly she was twenty feet away from him. "You keep him away from me!" She screamed as she stormed out of the Great Hall, most likely retreating to her dorm.

Panting for breath, Sirius picked himself up. He rubbed against his neck as his face turned back to a normal color. "Damn... She doesn't look it, but that mongoose form of her's is strong."

Katie, back in human form, rolled her eyes. "Well if you hadn't been a twit..." She turned and walked out, probably to talk to Parvati or check on Oliver.

Harry tried not to laugh. "Well, you are being rather obnoxious." He grinned.

"Aw, they love me. Don't for a minute think that they don't." Sirius winked before heading further into the Great Hall. It was nearly lunch time and he wanted to get a head start as soon as the food arrived.

"I think th..."

"Harry!"

Turning, Harry saw Hermione come dashing into the Great Hall. She sent a glare toward Sirius, letting the man know that word was already out, and then dragged Harry aside. After a whispered conversation in which Harry was first shocked, the two thirds of the Golden Trio really got involved in the topic.

Sirius watched, curious as to what would get the two so excited. But before he got a chance to spy, Hermione grabbed Harry into a hug before tearing out of the Hall as if her tail were on fire. "What was that about?"

"She tracked Oliver's species down." Harry carefully avoided eye contact. Knowing what Sirius would ask next, he added, "Fwooper."

Sirius was about to call Harry on the strange abundance of enthusiasm for such a simple thing when the comment hit. "Fwooper! That's great!"

Harry smirked to himself as Sirius whipped out his parchment and started working out a nickname for the former Gryffindor Keeper.

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It was toward the end of lunch hour that the strangest creature anyone had ever seen walked into the Great Hall. It was vaguely humanoid in shape and caused most everyone to stop what they were doing and stare.

The body was covered in shaggy, dirty blond hair much like a Wookie from the Star Wars series and had no less than three pairs of small furry wings along it's back. The purpose of the wings was a mystery as they were obviously too small for flight. A tail perhaps two feet long and just as shaggy was curled up rather like a husky's. Overlarge feet and hands similar to a gorilla's seemed slightly out of place.

Large, pale bue eyes seemed to stare off into space as a long, cow-like ear flicked lazily. It had a short muzzle that was oddly a cross between a beak and a pig snout. Three horns were situated on the creature's head, one on the forehead and one high above each ear. There were also horn-like spikes on each shoulder and on it's knees. The horns were all curved, as if crumpling in on themselves...

It wasn't until the creature seated itself at the table and began eating that anyone shook off their shock. Neville, the first to recover, noticed a familiar butterbeer cork necklace around the creature's neck. "Luna?"

Swallowing, the creature nodded. "Hello, Neville. I like your fur." Luna calmly went back to eating as if nothing were out of the ordinary.

George cleared his throat. "So, that's what a crumple-horned snorkack looks like?"

Luna paused, turning to look at George, or perhaps through George! "Of course not. This is what a hybrid crumple-horned snorkack looks like." She returned to her food, oblivious to George and everyone else's surprised looks and whispered speculations.

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After dinner, Fred and George started asking people if they had seen Hermione. But no one had seen the witch since she had spoken to Harry before lunch. When confronted, Harry denied knowledge as to where Hermione could currently be located.

Oliver had awoken around dinner time, half-amused and half-irritated with the new nickname Sirius had dubbed him with, the newly named Rant was forbidden to speak unless necessary after the first attempt. He was brightly colored, small feathers covering his body with blues, reds and purples. His feet were similar to Ron's, though not nearly as sharply taloned.

Like the other avian hybrid, Oliver had wings, though his were smaller and offset by a long purple and silver tail of rather attractive feathers. When the newly cured Colin had cheerfully suggested that Oliver could make a fortune if he sold his feathers for quills, Oliver had retaliated with a rant... It was that rant which allowed everyone to know that the Quidditch crazed hybrid carried the powers of his species. They already had a perfect plan for him once the battle started.

Only one person remained asleep in the Hospital Wing, his body slowly adjusting to whatever form it was taking. Draco Malfy and Millicent Bulstrode were often found checking in on the sleeping Blaise Zabini. Like Millicent, Blaise had decided to make his stand for the Light when Draco openly went to the Gryffindor table several weeks previous.

Blaise's form had easily been apparent to everyone and he had round the clock surveillance as a result. The sleeping Slytherin was massively muscular and tall. It was obvious to everyone that when Blaise awoke, he would be the largest of the hybrids. Large enough, at any rate, that the hospital cot he was sleeping on had to have an unbreakable charm cast upon it's frame.

It was while Millicent and Draco were checking up on Blaise that he finally showed signs of stirring. First wiggling and then stretching, Blaise rolled out of bed with a loud yawn and promptly fell over onto the floor as he couldn't coordinate his new bulk properly. Grunting as he landed, the stubby horn on his small muzzle hit the cabinet next to his bed just right and as the startled Wolf and Komodo Dragon hybrids dove for cover, the cabinet exploded with a loud BOOM!

"What in the world is going on in here?" Madam Pomfrey sounded furious as she came over. Her glare turned first to Draco, then Millicent and finally landed on a slightly dazed Blaise Zabini. "Are you all right, Mr Zabini?" She would have attempted to help him up, but he was much too large for her assistance.

The explosion drew the attention of those nearby and soon Charlie Weasley, Neville Longbottom and Luna Lovegood were in the Hospital Wing as well. Seeing the situation, Charlie and Neville assisted Millicent in helping Blaise to stand. It took all three of them to help the Slytherin.

"It's about time someone else got a good battle form." Luna commented, looking from Charlie to Blaise. "An Erumpent..." She smiled. "I wonder what name Mr Black wanted you to have..." With that, she wandered out of the Hospital, probably to see what name Sirius had for Blaise.

"You know," Draco began thoughtfully. "I think she's saner now that she's part Snorkack..."

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Though smaller sessions had started as the new Animalities awoke, it wasn't until all were awake that the new lessons began. It was two days before Christmas and almost all were gathered in the Great Hall. The Animagi present were giving rudimentary lessons on changing form for when the Animalities took their booster potion to some while Remus Lupin and Fleur Delacour were assisting in the control department.

While no one had really thought about it at the time, they soon learned from Fleur that Veela were rather dangerous when they snapped. No one had known until these lessons just how much control Fleur and other half-Veela had to maintain on a daily basis. This was something Bill Weasley vouched for, having seen his fiancee when she lost her cool.

Remus Lupin was helpful as well, though he admitted that the Wolfsbane potion helped him maintain control. That had led to Sirius Black telling them a story about when the Marauders were still in Hogwarts and Remus hadn't had the perfect control he now possessed. Remus had promptly smacked Sirius upside the head and carried on with the lesson as if he were still a Professor.

The original Animalities were assisting as well, walking between the groups and giving pointers. Harry and Ron were explaining winged flight to Oliver and Charlie while Ginny was consoling the cured Colin Creevey on losing the chance to be one of the hybrids in battle. Draco wasn't being very helpful, though he got the twins to cheer up slightly by teasing Ron for being halfway across the room from anywhere that Lee Jordan happened to be located. Hermione was... Well, no one knew where to find Hermione.

The cougar hybrid was still missing and Harry still refused to say what he had talked to her about the day she vanished. This caused the twins to be depressed. Since the twins were the Alpha Males of Draco's 'pack,' he couldn't help his efforts to cheer them up. Thankfully Draco knew that teasing Ron would help him keep what Slytherin pride he still possessed while sucking up to his 'leaders.' This also provided him with a way to mask his own worry for the missing Alpha Female.

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"Blaise Zabini, stop bumping into things!" Millicent Bulstrode glared furiously up at the much taller Slytherin boy. It was bad enough that Blaise made the ground rumble when walking around, but for him to 'accidentally' bump into things just so he could blow them up and make the entire room rumble was rediculous!

"It was an accident, Millie! Honest!" Blaise crossed his arms over his chest, the gesture somewhat awkward as his arms were so much larger than he was used to.

"Your horn is on your _face_, Zabini! Do you honestly think I'm going to buy that you've been 'accidentally' smacking your face into everything?" Millicent glared evilly.

Blaise and Millicent were currently standing in the Slytherin Common Room. Draco Malfoy was seated on one of the couches nearby, barely paying attention to them. They were the only Slytherins present and quite alone as they claimed they needed to get away from the 'Gryffindork Germs' for a while. Blaise was playing with his new ability to blow things up. Millicent was merely worried about Blaise accidentally blowing up something that would break the windows in the common room and cause the lake to fall down on their heads. While her worries were justified with the abilities of an Erumpent in the room, they all knew it was unlikely that Blaise's explosive fluid would penetrate the charms to the windows.

"Draco, make her be sensible!" Blaise turned a look toward the Prince of Slytherin only to find that Draco was ignoring them. Sighing, he seated himself reluctantly on the ground.

Seeming rather smug, Millicent seated herself on one of the sleek black leather couches. "Draco... We understand your pack mentality now that we've had experience with animal instincts... But really! It's just Granger."

That seemed to penetrate and Draco turned a glare to Millicent that was almost hateful. He seemed to flicker slightly as he almost shifted into his hybrid form before regaining control. "You don't understand though. Komodo dragons and Erumpents aren't pack animals. They're like my family. Better than my family even!" He didn't have to explain what he meant by that to the other two Slytherins.

"Look, if something were really wrong, I'm sure Potter would have mentioned something by now." Blaise was a bit more helpful in his efforts. "I mean really! Granger, Potter and Weasley have been friends since first year. Not to mention that Potter has a herd mentality which is almost the same as your pack mentality. Granger and the Weasleys are probably the closest he has to real family and he's not worried about her."

"Yeah, I guess you're right." Draco hated admitting something like that. "I'm going to bed." He got up, heading for the boys dormitory. Pausing at the bottom of the stairs, he turned to glare at Blaise. "Don't blow anything else up!"

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The day before Christmas came along and aside from control lessons, the castle was relatively quiet. Ron Weasley found himself walking down one of the halls on his way to the kitchens when a he was suddenly snagged and pulled into one of the many secret passages. His startled squawk was cut off when he found himself staring into the excited face of Hermione Granger.

"Where the bloody..."

"Shh! Come on, Harry's waiting." With that, Hermione dragged Ron through the passage and off to meet Harry... Where ever that was!

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That night it was more than the twins and Draco who were worried. With just Hermione gone and Harry unconcerned with her absence, they had felt a bit of peace. With all three of the Golden Trio missing, it was another thing entirely.

"Where is that blasted map?"

"Sirius, don't make a mess of Harry's things." Remus rolled his eyes before flicking his wand. "Accio Marauder's Map." The map flew into his hands only to be snatched away by Sirius.

"I solemnly swear that I am up to no good." Sirius waited impatiently as the black ink spider-webbed it's way across the parchment. "What the hell..."

Confused by the change in Sirius' expression, Remus moved over to look over his shoulder. There it was, beneath their Marauder's Map presentation...

_"Mister Moony would like to apologize profusely to Mister Padfoot and himself, but the Marauder's Map is currently out of order..._

_Mister Padfoot wants himself and Mister Moony to know that Miss Wildcat is a very frightening woman... Beautiful and very brilliant, but scary!_

_Mister Wormtail wishes he could help, but he's in the rat house at the moment..._

_Mister Prongs agrees completely with Mister Padfoot and wants to note that Mister Bolt certainly is a handsome bloke, isn't he?"_

"Those... Those..." Sirius looked torn between being impressed at Hermione and Harry's work on the map and furious that they were obviously hiding from everyone. "Brats!"

Shaking his head, Remus couldn't help but laugh.

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Christmas morning came like any other morning. The presents were all under a large tree in the Great Hall this year to encourage everyone to be together. Everyone trudged down for breakfast and presents only to find Harry, Ron and Hermione sitting at the single large table eating breakfast as if they had never been gone.

"Hermione!" The female member of the Golden Trio was hidden beneath the enthusiastic greetings of her boyfriends.

Harry rolled his eyes and Ron laughed as Hermione was forced to shift into her hybrid form just to withstand the strength of the twins' enthusiastic hugs.

Later, once everyone had eaten and the presents had been opened, Albus Dumbledore walked among the students and Order members. Since the castle was mostly empty, and his reason for being in hiding was nearly over, he walked freely among the Warriors of Light. Albus handed each that had recently taken the Animality potion a vial.

"Now... The effects of this potion will be almost instantaneous, no waiting days in the Hospital Wing. If the reaction the original seven had is any indication, you will be momentarily lost completely within the animal mind." Some of them gulped nervously while others remained impassive. "Well will stun each of you and, if you haven't roused in a few hours, you will be enervated. As soon as you awake, the lessons will begin again. I am sorry to have to cut the holiday short, but if all goes well, we'll have a nice, long holiday once Voldemort has been defeated." Surprisingly, no one flinched when Albus said the name. "Now... Bottoms up!"

One by one the new Animalities downed the vial and one by one they changed into the full animal forms of their species. Oliver Wood was first, taking into the air with a loud song that caused those nearby to almost instantly feel pain as their grips on sanity faltered. It took ten stupifies to take Oliver down and Nymphadora Tonks barely managed to catch him before he could hurt himself.

Blaise was nearly as difficult, the large, rhinocerous-like Erumpent starting to charge toward Minerva McGonagall and Molly Weasley before a quick _Petrificus Totalis _from George Weasley stopped him. Fred followed George's example and threw a _Petrificus_ on Charlie before the large, blue-hued dragon could launch any sort of attack.

Deciding that Fred and George had the right idea, those not currently fighting the _Animality Booster Potion _paired up to freeze and stun the animals before the Great Hall could be destroyed. Parvati turned out to be the most difficult to subdue, the little mongoose easily slipping around the various animal bodies and hiding in the large Christmas tree before she was stunned.

The easiest turned out to be Kingsley Shacklebolt. The auror didn't need to be stunned or subdued at all. It merely took Harry speaking to him in Parseltongue for the large python to gather his senses. It also turned out that Kingsley didn't need any further lessons to turn back and forth between his forms. Apparently he had actually paid close attention to the Animagi during the previous lessons and was soon shifting back and forth between his forms.

Charlie soon woke, the dragon form allowing a better resistance to stunning spells and the brief nap granting him enough time to come to his senses. His full dragon form was impressive, nearly thirty feet long from nose to tail-tip and with a wingspan nearly twice that. He was obviously a unique species of dragon, one that caused Hermione to comment that she had always wanted a dragon before she pondered aloud that maybe she should start collecting Weasleys. Fred and George didn't seem keen on the idea though Ginny seemed to think it was hilarious.

Someone had wisely cast a silencing charm on Oliver before he had a chance to wake and, if not for the telepathic speech abilities that Animalities possessed, he would have been completely mute. As it was, the brightly colored bird seemed to be rather ruffled by the ordeal.

Ginny crawled into the Christmas tree, being the smallest of those present, and retrieved Parvati. Once the mongoose was free of the tree, Ginny seemed reluctant to let her go and asked her mother if she could get a pet ferret for her birthday... A white pet ferret that she could name Malfoy. Draco was not amused.

Millicent awoke next, the overly large lizard rather intimidating, especially considering that it was one of the few wizarding animals that even Muggles were aware of. Though Muggles assumed that the Komodo Dragon killed it's victims by the nasty infection caused by old food around it's teeth, the Komodo Dragon was really venomous, much like certain snakes. While the venom was nice, it was the Komodo Dragon's little known ability to blend into it's surroundings like a cross between a demiguise and a chameleon that classified it as a magical beast. Komodo Dragons, having gained dominance on their native island, rarely felt the need to use this ability however, which was why Muggles knew of the species' existance.

Arthur Weasley was prodded out of sleep by his wife, Molly. She had turned into her lioness Animagus form and was patiently staring down at the red fox as she nudged him with a paw. Soon after he woke, Molly convinced him to go for a run with her and the fox and lioness were soon gone to other parts of the castle...

Blaise woke, feeling rather grumpy, but thankfully not in the mood to charge or gore anything. The Erumpent didn't seem impressed with his bulk and wondered when they would be starting lessons to learn to change their forms.

Roused from slumber by Fred and George, Lee was soon convinced to be evil and snuck silently over toward Ronald Weasley who was staring at the sleeping Crumple-Horned Snorkack and attempting to determine how something like that could be real. In less than five minutes everyone was wide awake as The Golden Galleon screeched in fright while the giant acromantula Crawler, also known as Lee Jordan, fell over laughing.

Once he had been awakened, it was all Hermione and Harry could do to keep themselves from changing Neville's nickname from Rumble to Pooh... Apparently his nap stirred a craving for honey in the bear Animality and he was soon found with his muzzle stuffed in a honey pot and cracking up those that knew of the Muggle character Winnie the Pooh.

The freshly awakened Luna stared with large, surprised eyes at the eagle hybrid and the acromantula before flying away... Ron stopped screaming and stared in disbelief as the bulky Snorkack creature that he had thought incapable of flight with it's tiny wings proved him wrong. Luna landed near the entrance to the Great Hall, changing to her hybrid form as if such activities were normal, and walked off to the Ravenclaw Common Room.

"This day is just too weird..."

Albus nodded his agreement. "I must say I concur, Mr. Weasley... Would you like a sherbet lemon?"

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With less than six days until the time they were given, the only residents of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry spent nearly every waking moment in training. All students that would normally have remained behind for the holidays had been sent off before the Order arrived to spend the holidays with friends. The only ones remaining were the members of the Order of the Phoenix and the DA turned Animality members.

Mornings were devoted to control and shifting lessons. In the afternoons, the Golden Trio mysteriously disappeared while a large group of Aurors that had arrived to assist taught physical combat skills. In the evenings, Ron always returned and was a great help with the battle plans. Sometimes Harry and Hermione came with him, other times they remained missing. At night, everyone crashed where they were to sleep, usually in the Great Hall.

Three days after Christmas, Katie Bell came bounding into the Great Hall waving a piece of parchment. "I finally found out why we couldn't find Angelina Johnson and Alicia Spinnet!" Her announcement drew the attention of all the Gryffindor Quidditch players past and present. "Angelina's mother just found out herself. Apparently they eloped and are currently on their honeymoon in the States!"

Surprisingly, the news that the former chasers had eloped stunned everyone _except_ for their former team mates.

"That's great! I'm glad they finally made it official." Oliver was in his full Fwooper form, it being the only way he could speak at all without driving people insane.

The next day, Padma Patil finally showed up. She had been too afraid to join the others and had missed her chance to become an Animality. She apologized to her sister for being a coward and said she was still too frightened to fight, but she would be helping Madam Pomfrey in the Hospital Wing. Parvati welcomed her sister with open arms. After all, there was a reason Padma didn't make it into Gryffindor house. Padma began nursing training with Madam Pomfrey while the training intensified.

All there was left to do now was to wait...

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New Year's Eve

Everyone was jumpy, the lessons becoming dangerous as the nervous Animalities forgot their strengths. Nervous energy flowed through the castle as the minutes seemed to fly past.

The Golden Trio was clingy compared to their behavior over the last week. Everyone knew that it would come down to Voldemort and Harry, but they also knew Hermione and Ron would be at Harry's side. So basically no one complained, not even when Hermione, Fred and George all vanished for several hours.

Harry and Ginny seemed to reach some sort of agreement which, should Harry defeat Voldemort and return to her, would involve wedding bells as soon as Ginny graduated.

Ron spent an unusual amount of time talking to Draco, and no one seemed to know what was said between the two. Once he finished their conversation, The Golden Galleon spent time with his parents.

Before anyone knew it, they were all getting ready. New battle gear was given to those that didn't already have such garments. Tonks seemed to transform before everyone's eyes, the Auror putting aside her clever disguise of clumsiness and taking on a grace that was rivaled only by the felines among the group.

Albus Dumbledore, Filius Flitwick and Minerva McGonagall used their wand skills to disguise people as harmless students. More than one person was amused when Dumbledore ended up looking like Colin Creevey. The real Colin, after getting a picture of himself and his 'clone,' went to the Hospital Wing with Madam Pomfrey and Padma Patil.

Once everyone was ready, they went over the battle plan one final time before everyone trudged out to the grounds near the lake where they normally rang in the New Year.

"10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2..."

**KABOOM!**

The Filibuster Fireworks went off with a bang that nearly caused the tense 'students' to fire off hexes. They sang and cheered, acting as normal as possible while they waited...And waited.

Finally, the cold and activities of the New Year couldn't compel them to remain outdoors any longer and they turned to head back inside. More than one person complaining about either the cold or the lack of activity only to halt as they saw a large group of Death Eaters, wands drawn, waiting for them in front of the castle.

"Now you're finished..." The hissing voice came from a creature with glowing crimson eyes right in the middle of the Death Eaters. "Kill them all!"

With those words, the curses started flying!

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Nearly two hundred and fifty Death Eaters had surrounded Lord Voldemort and, at his command, they charged, hexes flying, down at the group of fifty or so students. At least what they thought were students! Disguises dropped as the Death Eaters moved into a charge. It was obvious that they were hoping to overwhelm the students by sheer numbers. The Death Eaters charge faltered as reality sank in and their first charge was met head on with an annoyed Erumpent!

Blaise Zabini, protected by four Aurors casting shields and deflecting curses for him, charged in his full Erumpent form and drove his horn straight into the stomach of an approaching Death Eater. He whirled swiftly, flinging his head around and throwing the body off and into a group of five Death Eaters where it promptly exploded. The force of the explosion, not to mention the disgust of having a person's guts exploding onto them, brought down the five. Blaise continued without pause, tearing a messy hole into the opposition.

Charmed with a funnel type spell, Oliver Wood flew over another group of Death Eaters. This was a minor bit of joy for Oliver as he had been given specific instructions to sing praise about Quidditch at the enemy! While such a thing might seem silly, the fact that Oliver was currently a Fwooper gave his normal Quidditch rant a power more effective than normal as the sound of his song, funneling down on the Death Eaters, drove them to insanity. When later asked, Fred and George had told them that they hadn't really noticed a difference from when Oliver had been Captain of the Gryffindor team...

A stream of fire rained down on another group as Charlie Weasley flew overhead. He landed soon after, using talons and tail-whips to do damage to the burning Death Eaters. Occasionally he would breathe more flames onto his opponents, showing no mercy as he allowed his dragon mentality to take over and brutally attack the Death Eaters.

Nearly managing to escape the battle, Peter Pettigrew found himself trapped by Sirius Black and Remus Lupin. Though the two were rather brutal in punishing their former fellow Marauder, they did not kill the Wormtail, instead forcing him into his rat form and locking him in the jar Hermione had once used on Rita Skeeter. Sirius would be free once the battle ended.

Everywhere one looked, Death Eaters were falling. They would be dueling with a seemingly normal person and be shocked nearly senseless when that person turned into an animal before taking the duels to a level most wizards were incapable of handling. Some half-breed animals would appear seemingly from nowhere as they shifted from smaller forms to larger, taking the Death Eaters out from behind.

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The battle seemed to have become a free-for-all and Kingsley, his purpose as a spy hardly necessary, slithered over to where Dumbledore and McGonagall were talking with an owl hybrid resumed his own hybrid form. "I can't find Voldemort. And I haven't seen Potter, Granger and Weasley since the fighting began."

"Thank you, Kingsley. Severus?" Dumbledore turned to the dark gray owl hybrid who nodded in reply before shifting into a full owl form and taking off in search. "Let us hope that all goes well..."

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Fred and George, found nearly in the middle of the remaining Death Eaters, were back to back in their hybrid forms. They didn't know how they had managed to get right in the middle of things and were hard pressed to keep the Death Eaters away. The twins alternated between throwing pellets filled with a powerful skin irritant and throwing curses when backup arrived.

Knocking Death Eaters aside, and in many cases, trampling right over them, a large silver stallion with a dark red mane and tail broke through the surrounding circle of black robed wizards. The stallion was followed by a large lioness and soon Bill and Molly Weasley were with the twins. The twins were shocked to see their mother so viciously fighting and couldn't hold back the grins.

"Glad to see you could join the fun, mum." Fred called cheekily before stunning another Death Eater.

Molly smirked. "Why in the world would I want to miss this? Did you two really think you got your prankster streak from your father?" She grinned at her startled sons before showing them a very nice hex that painfully downed three Death Eaters at once.

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Not far from where the Death Eaters had originally been gathered around Voldemort, the Inner Circle were nervously gathered. They hadn't expected the side of Light to return their attack, especially not so violently, and they were about to make a run for the wards to flee. Of course they never had a chance when a voice spoke out of nothingness.

"So nice of you to wait here for me..." The voice was familiar, especially to one of the Death Eaters.

"Millicent?" The man looked around for the girl he knew.

"Hello father..." Millicent's hissing voice was the last thing the man heard before the hybrid girl appeared in front of him and sank her sharp, venomous fangs into his throat. Within moments her father was dead and the brutal young Slytherin woman seemed to vanish.

"Where the hell..." Bellatrix looked around wildly, casting jinxes and hexes as she searched for the blood traitor girl. Even with the other Inner Circle members, save Snape, assisting, they didn't stand a chance as the Komodo Dragon hybrid took them down one by one.

As Lucius Malfoy turned to flee, he came face to face with a familiar white wolf. Backing up, the elder Malfoy only had time to scream before the wolf attacked...

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In the Great Hall of the castle, the important fight was taking place. Harry, Hermione and Ron, all three in their human forms, were taking on Voldemort. Voldemort had fled into the castle almost as soon as the fighting had started and the Trio had followed. They had found him en route to the Chamber of Secrets and had fought him back to the Great Hall. All four had cuts, bruises and were bleeding in various places. Considering that no one had yet to attempt the killing curse, the Trio seemed to be evenly matched to Lord Voldemort.

Things took a turn for the Light when the Trio all managed to cast an _Impedimenta _simultaneously and throw the Dark Lord back. Voldemort lost his grip on his wand as he flew into a wall, the wand skittering several feet away from his hand.

Instantly pressing their advantage, the Trio began flinging hexes at the downed man. Their curses caused bones to audibly crack and blood to flow before Voldemort's wand jumped back into his hand with a silent spell. Swinging his arm in one swoop as he fluidly rose from his crumpled location, the Trio suddenly found their wands flying from their hands and into Voldemort's.

Standing, Voldemort tilted his head back and cackled. "Finally, Potter shall die and I'll kill a blood traitor and a mudblood in the process!" As he continued to laugh, preparing to fire off the killing curse, Voldemort's attention was drawn by the vaguely familiar sound of metal clicking against metal. He turned to look at the trio and stepped back, bumping into the wall with his eyes wide.

Harry, Hermione and Ron stood confidently despite the loss of their wands. Each wore a smirk as they raised the Muggle guns Hermione had purchased and taught them how to use. The clicking had been the sound of those guns being cocked and ready for use.

"If it's all the same to you, Tom..." Harry smiled almost pleasantly. "I think we'll take a rain check on those deaths."

**BANG!**

* * *

**-**:The End:- 


End file.
